An Unexpected Visit at Wellesley
Mrs. Merrill turned from the hotel desk and looked in a puzzled way at the slip of yellow paper she held in her hand.
“What do you suppose this means?” she said as she came up to where the two girls were sitting in big chairs waiting for her. “It says, ‘Phone Cambridge 2811 at once.’ Somebody telephoned five minutes ago, the clerk said, and was very anxious to reach me. Now whatever can have happened? Hal didn’t know we were coming back here, so it couldn’t be he and we don’t know another soul. However,” she added briskly, “I needn’t be so silly as to stand here wondering when I might go to the ’phone and find out all about it. You stay right here, girlies, and I’ll ’phone from the booth over there and we’ll solve the mystery.”
Mary Jane and Alice could hardly wait, they were so curious and impatient to find out what had happened. They could see Mrs. Merrill talking but she was too far away for them to make out whether she was pleased or distressed by the conversation. In two or three minutes though, she left the booth and came towards them and the girls could tell by the way she was smiling that something very nice and agreeable had happened.
“We’re to be up at the station in thirty minutes,” she announced, “the station where we came in this morning, and Uncle Hal will meet us and take us out to see Wellesley—what do you think of that?”
“But, Mother,” exclaimed Alice, “I thought he had a lot of work to do?”
“He still has,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but just after we left him he got a message from one of his friends at Wellesley telling him that the Tree Day dance was to be given this afternoon at the Garden Party, and that when it was first shown it was so very wonderful, we surely must see it.”
“And so he told her we were here?” said Alice.
“He didn’t have to, she already knew that,” said Mrs. Merrill, “and her invitation included us. So just on a chance that we might come to the hotel, he called up and left the message for us. We won’t have time to change or anything, but I guess we look all right in traveling clothes. Let’s hurry now, so’s not to miss the train.”
“But where’s lunch?” asked Mary Jane in dismay, “I am hungry, truly I am.”
“Of course you are, dear,” said Mrs. Merrill reassuringly, “and we’ll get a bite. Hal said there was a nice little place right on the way to the station and if we go quickly, we’ll have time for a sandwich and a glass of milk. Then if that isn’t enough, perhaps we can get something later. In fact,” and she smiled mysteriously, “I think I wouldn’t worry a bit about starving if I were you.”
After that Mary Jane didn’t bother about being hungry—she was too busy wondering what was going to happen. They got a sandwich, a luscious big chicken sandwich with white meat sticking out all around the edges, and a glass of milk, a great big glass of milk, and that was all there was time for. Even so they barely got down the stairs in time for their train.
The ride out to Wellesley was great fun, for Uncle Hal told them stories all the way—stories of jolly times he had had going over this same route and of fun at Wellesley.
“When I grow up,” announced Alice as they got off at the station, “I’m coming to Wellesley and I’m going to know some folks at Harvard and everything just like you’ve been telling us about.”
“And I’m coming here too,” said Mary Jane, “I wouldn’t go to any place but Wellesley ’cause it’s the very nicest.”
“A lot you know about it,” teased Uncle Hal, “now why is Wellesley the nicest—can you tell that?”
“’Cause it’s near to Harvard,” said Mary Jane, and of course if she had thought all day, she couldn’t have thought up an answer that would better please her Harvard uncle.
“We’ll hop onto this trolley and ride to the entrance to save time,” said Uncle Hal as he hailed a passing car. They rode a very little way, really not a nickel’s worth Mary Jane said, and found themselves at the college entrance.
Of the next hour and a half Mary Jane didn’t have a very clear understanding. There was so much to see that a person just couldn’t see and remember it all; and so many folks talking that one couldn’t hear everything. But she remembered what she could and saved it up to ask her mother about afterward. There were the old-fashioned red brick buildings on the quadrangle and the stately Tower Court where Hal’s friend, Miss Elliott, lived, and the beautiful campus with its lovely old trees that cast an inviting shade over the lawns.
“I’m going to study hard and come here to college,” said Alice, after they had completed their trip around the grounds, “I think it would be just wonderful to live here for four years! And just think, Mother,” she added, “in five years I’ll be coming here!” She looked dreamily over the beautiful place and tried to imagine herself one of the girls in gay sport clothes walking under those very trees.
“I’m coming here too,” said Mary Jane, “and I’ll be here before so very long, won’t I, Mother dear?”
“Before we know it, at the rate you girls are now growing,” laughed Mrs. Merrill, “and just think of the fun I’m going to have coming here to ‘settle my daughters’ when they begin college.”
Miss Elliott found them excellent seats where they could watch the dancing, and Mary Jane enjoyed sitting and looking at everything quite as much as being shown around. She thought the dancing wonderful and held her breath with the joy of it as the dancers came gayly down the shaded hill, across the open green and back up the hill again when the dance was over.
“I’ll have to learn a lot if I’m going to come here and do all that,” she whispered to her mother when the dancers were out of sight behind the greenery that made the background.
“No doubt about that, dear,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but just think how much you are learning all the time! By the time you are grown-up as those girls are, you’ll be sure to know a lot.”
“Has Uncle Hal said anything about tea or anything?” whispered Alice as the groups of people broke up and she guessed that the program was over.
As though they suspected what the girls might be thinking of, Miss Elliott and Hal came up at that minute and Uncle Hal said, “I’ve just been telling Dorothy that we’ll take our quarter of a cup of tea and half a wafer that we could get over there, some other time, and she’s agreed to let me take you all to the Inn for real tea. Want to go or doesn’t food appeal to you?”
“Um-m,” said Alice, trying hard to be really grown-up like Miss Elliott, “I think I could eat a little if you insist.”
“Here’s the insisting then,” laughed Uncle Hal, and tucking her arm into his, he started off, passed the administration building and down Freshman Row.
Miss Elliott walked with Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane and pointed out the various houses as they passed them.
“This is where you want to stay your freshman year,” she said as they passed a three-story frame building on their left, “lots of nice girls go there and you’ll have great larks. But you’ll have to put her application in early if you want her to get in there, Mrs. Merrill,” she advised, “because it’s one of the most popular houses.”
“I think I’ll put in application for both girls as soon as I can attend to it,” said Mrs. Merrill, “for what I have seen of the college in even this one little glimpse, has made me feel that Alice and Mary Jane must go here. I can’t imagine a more charming place to spend four years than right here.”
Hal and Alice had turned in to a building on the other side of the street so Mary Jane hurried her mother and Miss Elliott that they might catch up.
“He engaged a table by ’phone before he came out,” said Miss Elliott, “so we know they’ll be looking for us.”
“And then they’ll have plenty to eat even though there are lots of folks, won’t they?” said Mary Jane, much comforted.
Uncle Hal showed them to the table by the window where they could eat and at the same time see everything that might be going on either inside or out.
Mary Jane was a bit curious as to what Uncle Hal might offer her to eat—especially as he didn’t ask her what she wanted. But evidently he knew what was good, for when the tray arrived a few minutes later it was piled up with good things.
“I thought you didn’t have time to overeat this noon so you might like a hearty tea,” he explained as Mrs. Merrill looked with a bit of dismay at the loaded tray. “If you don’t want any, sister,” he added, “I know some people who can eat more than their share—and I didn’t have any lunch myself!”
There were sandwiches—olive sandwiches and lettuce and chicken, all so dainty and pretty that Mary Jane thought she could eat twenty by herself she was that hungry! And tea in dainty gold-rimmed cups, and fudge cake with icing as thick as the cake—almost—and cunning little cakes and candies in paper cases.
Mary Jane watched to see how Miss Elliot fixed her tea and then she took cloves too, just as Miss Elliott did—though it did make a funny taste. Still when one is visiting college one does as college folks do—cream and sugar is all right for home use, but isn’t grown-up enough when one is “at college.”
After tea, Miss Elliott walked down to the station with them and told them good-by. Mary Jane was sorry that they weren’t to see her again but Miss Elliott explained that she would be far too busy with her own college affairs to come to the parties at Harvard.
“What are you thinking about so solemnly?” asked Uncle Hal as they were riding back to Boston, “you haven’t said a word for five minutes!”
“I’m thinking ’bout my new shoes,” said Mary Jane. “All the girls at Wellesley had white shoes and I’ve got white shoes—in the trunk. I’m going to wear them to-morrow and you’re going to be surprised, you are, Uncle Hal.”
“I believe it,” laughed Uncle Hal, “I’ll wager I’ll be proud of my family.”
“You won’t be, if your family doesn’t get back to its room and unpack its trunk pretty soon,” said Mrs. Merrill.
“No,” she added later, when they got off the train and he started toward their hotel, “you aren’t to go a step of the way with us. It’s right there in plain sight and we couldn’t get lost if we tried. Now hurry back to Cambridge and do your work and don’t you dare come to the hotel before seven.”
“And we’ll unpack and press our dresses and get everything ready for Class Day, won’t we Mother?” said Mary Jane, “I think that’ll be as much fun as seeing things.”