looking at his watch, "I've just time for a surprise and then I'll have to leave you."

"Couldn't we go along to Harvard with you?" asked Alice.

"Yes, you could," replied Uncle Hal, "want to?"

"'Deed I do," answered Alice heartily, "I don't want to miss anything."

"Then with me you go, for even if I can't stay with you long, you can have the ride out and back. But now for the surprise."

He guided them across a bridge and down a sheltered path to a tiny lake and there riding on the water were several great white swans. No, they weren't swans either. They were much too big for real swans and there were seats on a platform right behind. Boats—that's what they were of course. Boats in the shape of swans!

"Can we ride on them?" asked Mary Jane breathless with excitement, "really ride on them—people can?"

"To be sure people can," laughed Uncle Hal, "and we're going to this very minute."

He bought four tickets while Mary Jane and Alice climbed into the nearest seats and then he and Mrs. Merrill sat just behind them.

"Where's the engineer?" asked Mary Jane.

"Coming," replied Uncle with a chuckle, "there he is, now."

Mary Jane watched an elderly man step aboard the boat and take his place on a queer-looking seat between the wings of the "swan" and much to her surprise he didn't start any engine: instead he began pedaling as if he was riding a bicycle. The swan boat moved away from the pier and, as the man pedaled, they rode with a slow and stately motion out into the little lake.

It was a queer way to ride, being bicycled around a lake in a boat built to look like a swan but Mary Jane loved it. They moved slowly—just like a swan in a fairy tale—and it didn't take Mary Jane a minute to forget all about Boston and the Commons and to fancy that she was a princess in a fairy tale and that the kind swan was drawing her in a magic boat through her country to visit her subjects. She didn't see the flower beds by the side of the tiny lagoon; she didn't see the children playing on the beach; she didn't hear the talk Mrs. Merrill and Uncle Hal were enjoying; she didn't even talk to Alice sitting right by her side. Mary Jane saw only the magic of the fairy tale that was in her mind and enjoyed the thrill of being a princess.

With a slight bump the swan boat touched the dock and Uncle Hal took her hand to help her off.

"Oh, do we have to get off?" she exclaimed in dismay, "we've only just begun to ride!"

"Like it so well?" asked Uncle Hal, "then you shall have a ride every day while you are here. I remember when I was a little kid and came to visit Boston, I liked them a lot. That's why I brought you here first thing this morning. But I guess we'll have to go now if you're going out to Cambridge with me."

Very reluctantly Mary Jane stepped off the boat and with a promise to herself that she would ride again every single time she possibly could, she trudged along behind the others.

A short walk brought them to the entrance of the subway. Of course Mary Jane hadn't an idea what a subway was, for there wasn't any such thing in any city she had ever lived in or visited, but she gathered from what Uncle Hal said that it must be something that took them out to Cambridge. But such a funny something as it was she never would have imagined!

They went down some stairs, through a turnstile and onto a platform. Before Mary Jane's eyes were used to the queer, half-darkness of the platform, and her nose to the funny, dank smell, there was a rumble and a roar and along came a car. They were crowded aboard and again there was a rumble and roar and away they dashed—past red lights and green lights, past platforms and more platforms till in no time at all (or so it seemed to Mary Jane) they were up on a street, dashing across a long bridge, down again in the ground and Uncle Hal saying, "Time to get off! We're at Cambridge!"

They hurried off and up the stairs to the fresh air.

"That's better than the old, slow, surface car," said Uncle Hal as they crossed the street.

"Then the surface car must have been pretty bad," said Mary Jane positively, "'cause this one smells awful and hurries so fast you can't see anything!"

"You're right about those two things," laughed Uncle Hal, "and I suggest that you take a surface car to go back because then you can see all the sights you want to on the way. But of course, Mary Jane, you wanted to ride in a subway once."

"Maybe I did," said Mary Jane, "but I think the swan boats are lots the nicest."

Mrs. Merrill decided that they wouldn't go into the Yard at this time; Hal would be busy and couldn't show them around, and she much preferred that Alice and Mary Jane should get their first impressions of the wonderful university when they could see it right. So Uncle Hal put them on a surface car for Boston and with a promise to dine with them in their hotel, bade them good-by.

"I just don't see why anybody would ever ride in a cellar when they might be riding on a bridge over a lovely river," said Mary Jane as she looked at the Charles gleaming in the warm June sunshine.

"They must be in an awful hurry to get somewhere or those things would never be built," added Alice.

"Well, you know," laughed Mrs. Merrill, "we're in a hurry sometimes ourselves! We're not always ladies of leisure as we are to-day. And you see, it's a long ride back to Boston. What shall we do when we get there, girls?" she added.

"Get lunch," answered Alice promptly.

"Lunch!" exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, teasingly, "after all that breakfast?"

"Breakfast!" said Mary Jane, teasing back, "did we have breakfast?"

"All right then, ladies," said Mrs. Merrill, "we'll have lunch. And then how would you like to take an automobile ride that Hal told me about? It doesn't last much over an hour and we can see the old part of Boston, the historic part and also the foreign district your father was telling you about the other day."

"That would be fine, Mother," said Alice eagerly, "don't let's stop long for lunch. Let's just eat something and go—I love to see old places. Remember St. Augustine, Mother?"

"Indeed I do, dear," answered Mrs. Merrill. "Here we are at Copley Square. I have a feeling we had better go to our room first—there might be a message or something. Then we'll get lunch and take the ride."

It was a good thing Mrs. Merrill thought to go to the hotel and inquire for a message, for there was one for them—one that changed all their plans for the afternoon.