When the Merrills left the house some two hours later the turkey was almost cooked, the tree was trimmed, presents unpacked and happiness and good cheer had settled down in the little house for many a day.
It was a good thing they came away when they did, though, for exactly as they drove up to their own home, they met an express wagon. And in their own vestibule they found the driver. "Family of Merrill here?" he asked them.
"They're us," said Mary Jane eagerly. And whereupon the driver carried upstairs the biggest, fattest Christmas box Mary Jane had ever seen.
Of course it was from grandma and in it were so many lovely things from uncles and grandparents and cousins that Mary Jane thought she never would get everything unpacked!
"Well," said the little girl as some time later the family sat down to their own belated dinner, "I think for not having any presents, we got a lot! And I think I like Christmas in Chicago just as much as anywhere, I do."
"Let's go skating!" called Frances one cold morning as she saw Alice shake the bath room rug from the balcony.
"Down on the Midway," said Frances. "As soon as you get your work done, you and Mary Jane come around to our front door and Betty and I will be ready."
"But Mary Jane doesn't know how to skate," said Alice.
"Betty doesn't either," answered Frances, "but they can take their sleds and coast down the sides of the bank while you and I skate."
Alice promised and then she hurried inside to finish her work. She had heard about the fine skating on the Midway where the park board flooded the sunken greens for the benefit of neighborhood children, but thus far the weather had been too mild for any skating, so she hadn't had a chance to try it. But a sudden cold snap, with snow enough to cover the sloping banks, had provided both skating and coasting.
Well protected with warm mittens and leggings the girls set out and had the jolliest kind of a morning. At one end of the ice, the younger folks did their coasting, the sloping sides giving a flying start and the smooth ice a glorious finish. At the other end the older boys and girls did their skating, so there was no mix up or interference.
That morning was the first of many happy Saturday mornings spent on the ice. Even Mary Jane got some skates and, with the help of Dadah when he could get away from the office, she learned to be a fine skater.