THE week between the time Mary Jane heard of the trip South and the time for starting seemed unusually short. So short that Mary Jane thought it surely must have had only three days in it—that is, she thought that till she counted up and found to her surprise that this very, very short week had had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and now a Tuesday just exactly as all other weeks have.

“But the days haven’t been the same, Alice, I just know they haven’t,” insisted the little girl. “Yes they have,” laughed Alice, “only you’ve had so much to do and so much fun that you haven’t noticed how many hours have gone by—that’s the difference.”

“I should say we have done lots,” said Mary Jane, “if that’s the matter. I never saw such lots to do—never!”

And indeed it had been a busy week in the Merrill household. On Wednesday of the week before Mr. Merrill had announced that business would take him on a two weeks’ trip South and that he would take all the family with him. It seemed such a good chance to give the two girls, Alice, a big girl of twelve, and Mary Jane, a busy kindergartner of five, a glimpse of the tropical part of their country and a better understanding of the geography Alice was already studying and Mary Jane would soon begin.

But a week gave very little time to make ready so everybody had to help. There were gingham dresses from last summer’s wardrobe to get out and let down; each little girl had to have a new bathing suit, for who wants to go South without a swim in the ocean? New hats must be purchased because the velvet hats Alice and Mary Jane were wearing would be very heavy in the warm southern sunshine. Then the house must be shut up for its two weeks’ vacation, and everything must be made snug so that cold weather would do no damage. Mary Jane was so busy helping do errands and getting things out of drawers and closets and helping to pack that it’s no wonder she thought the time went quickly.

“Better plan so you can get along without your trunk some days,” suggested Mr. Merrill as he came into the house Tuesday evening, “because when we’re on the jump as we will be you can’t always be sure of getting your trunk every time.”

“Then I think I’ll have to take another hand bag,” said Mrs. Merrill thoughtfully. “Goody! Goody! Goody!” shouted Mary Jane. She was coming down the front stairs as she heard her father speak and she dashed back up again, hunted out the little black grip she was sure her mother meant to take and began packing.

“She’ll want pencils in it, and paper and my Marie Georgannamore ’cause I don’t ever have time to play with her when I’m in school,” said the little girl as she packed the things. “And rubbers, Mother always thinks about rubbers and—” but by that time Mary Jane was so excited, she piled everything from the top of her dresser pell-mell into the bag, and then hurried down stairs.

“Here it is, Mother,” she cried gayly, “you don’t have to pack it ’cause I’ve got it all done—every bit.” And she set the bag on the living room table.

Mrs. Merrill glanced at Mary Jane’s flushed face and saw how eager she was to help but that all the excitement and hustling were making her a little tired so she said, “That’s the grip I want, Mary Jane, and thank you for bringing it down to me. But before we pack it suppose you and Alice sit down by me and plan just what we want to take.”

“Yes, only I want to carry it,” said Mary Jane; “I’m plenty bigger ’nough to carry my own grip.”

“Why, Mother,” exclaimed Alice, “you wouldn’t let her carry a grip of her own, would you? She’s too little. I’ll be the one to carry it.”

“I thought you were going to carry your camera, Alice,” said Mrs. Merrill quietly, “and one thing for each girl is enough to look after. Suppose going down we pack yours and my things together in the suit case and let Mary Jane have her own toilet things and extra dress in the little grip. It isn’t too heavy for her to carry if she must. Then you can have your camera. Coming back you may not want to take so many pictures. We might pack your camera in the trunk and then you could have your things in the grip and take your turn traveling like a lady all alone. How would that be?”

Both girls were pleased with that plan so Mrs. Merrill said she would get just the right things to put in the bags while the girls went to tell their best friends good-by.

Mary Jane’s little chum, Doris Dana, lived next door, so she didn’t have far to go. Doris was at home and half way expecting Mary Jane because she knew that the Merrills were to leave early in the morning. She pulled Mary Jane into the living room in a jiffy and showed her a big book of pictures she had been looking at. “Look at these, Mary Jane,” she cried, “and these and these and these! Mother says you’ll see them all down South. Oh, dear, but I wish I was going too!” Mary Jane had never seen the big picture folder before (her father had promised that she should have one and he was to bring it to her that very evening) and she was as interested as Doris in the wonderful pictures it contained. They spread the folder out on the floor and looked at the big orange trees, the palm trees and the heavy Spanish moss that made every sort of tree look so queer. They looked at rivers and lakes and, most wonderful of all, a family of alligators.

“I like those best,” said Doris positively, “and why I like ’em is because they’re so awful. I wish I had one, I do.”

“Do they really grow that way?” asked Mary Jane of Doris’s mother.

“Indeed they do,” laughed Mrs. Dana. “I’ve seen hundreds of them just like that picture and you will too.”

“Oh, bring me one! Bring me one!” cried Doris; “will you, Mary Jane?” Before Mary Jane had a chance to answer the telephone rang and Mrs. Dana took a message from Mrs. Merrill that Mary Jane was to come home at once. So, with a hasty promise whispered in Doris’s ear, that she would surely send an alligator, Mary Jane ran skipping across the snowy lawn to her home.

When dinner was over an hour later, Mr. Merrill went to the hall and took from his coat pocket a bundle of railway folders.

“There you are, girls,” he said as he laid them on the table; “there are the pictures I promised you. I think you’ll find something about every place you’re going to visit.”

Alice and Mary both grabbed for folders and in two minutes time they had spread them out on the floor in front of the cozy fireplace and were peering through them eagerly. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill, who had taken the same trip before, explained in just what order the pictures should be put and told stories of their trip.

“Can’t we take these along with us?” asked Mary Jane; “that would be fun.”

“It might be fun,” agreed Mr. Merrill, “but it would also be a nuisance because we’ll have plenty to carry as it is. Let’s fold them up—it’s bed time now you see, girls—and put them in the table drawer here. Then first thing when you come back you can get them out and see if you really saw all we think you are going to.”

Mary Jane thought of course she never, never, never would go to sleep because she kept thinking about riding on the train and what she would order in the dining car and her new hat and lunch at the hotel the next day (Mary Jane loved to eat at a hotel) and those queer looking alligators she had seen pictures of and everything. But she must have slept, for in about a minute (or so it seemed) she sat straight up in bed and there was the sun shining straight on to her out-of-door bed and father out at the garage was locking the door and saying, “There, I guess that’s all done!”

She dashed into the house and bathed and dressed in a jiffy. Mother had laid out her things so she put on everything she would wear on the trip except the dress. Of course she wouldn’t put on her new traveling dress till the last minute—an old frock would do till then. Just as she was going down the stairs she met Alice coming up.

“There you are,” said Alice, “I was just coming up to call you, breakfast’s ready!”

After breakfast each person helped and in short order the dishes were washed and put away, the living room tidied and the upstairs set in order. By half past nine, folks were dressed and ready to go. It surely seemed good to get out into the sunshine because with the furnace fire out so Father could be sure there was no danger of fire, the house was beginning to get pretty shivery.

“Think about the flowers you’ll see Saturday, girls,” said Mr. Merrill, “and dance around a bit to warm up. The car will be along in a minute.”

“Won’t we see flowers till Saturday?” asked Mary Jane. “I thought we were going to-day.”

“So we are,” laughed Mr. Merrill, “but going takes a while. We start South to-night. Then we ride all to-night and all to-morrow. To-morrow night we get to Birmingham. You remember we are going to stop a day with Uncle Will there. All day Friday you’ll be seeing wonderful things in that city. Then Friday night we’ll get on a sleeper train again and Saturday morning we’ll be in Jacksonville.”

“And there’s flowers,” added Mary Jane.

“Just so,” said Mr. Merrill. “And alligators?” asked the little girl.

“Oh, lots of alligators they tell me,” laughed Mr. Merrill. But just then the traction came along so Mary Jane didn’t have a chance to explain her plan of bringing alligators home to Doris, which was perhaps just as well, for Mr. Merrill had plenty to think of as it was.

With buying hats and shoes and getting lunch and dinner the day went on wings and nine o’clock came before Mary Jane had had time to think of being tired.

The big train pulled in just on time, its lights all a-blazing and the observation car looking most inviting. The porter had the berths made up ready and, in spite of the fact that Mary Jane had just declared she was not tired a bit and could sit up for two hours yet, that soft white pillow and turned down cover looked very nice. She decided that the observation car could wait till morning for inspection. The last thing she said, before Mrs. Merrill pulled the heavy curtains together for the night was, “Mother, may I have anything I want for breakfast? If I may, I’m going to have two orders of hashed brown potatoes and not anything else!”