“Well, good morning,” said Grandmother cheerfully.  “That’s nice to dress in here!  I was just wishing I had company.”

“Does rain make you feel like you wanted somebody right close?” asked Mary Jane.

“Every time,” agreed Grandmother.  “And sometimes, when your grandfather’s working out in the barn, and Bob’s out there with him, and I’m all alone in the house, I just wish and wish I had a little girl about your size here to talk to.  I’m so glad you’re come, Mary Jane, you’re such good company!”

And immediately, would you believe it?  Mary Jane forgot all about being homesick and maybe going to cry, and began wondering what she could do for her grandmother!

“What are we going to do to-day, Grandmother?” she asked as they went down the stairs together.

“Let me see,” said Grandmother thoughtfully, looking at the little girl.  “First, of course, we’ll get breakfast—­wouldn’t you like fresh corn bread and maple syrup?” Mary Jane nodded happily, for she liked Grandmother’s corn bread.  “Then we’ll do the dishes and make the beds—­but that won’t take long with you helping me.  Then we’ll peel the potatoes and start the meat cooking for dinner.  Then we’ll—­by the way, Mary Jane,” she asked suddenly, “what have you in those two packages in your trunk?”

Mary Jane stared at her grandmother a minute and tried to think whatever she might mean.  Then she remembered.  “Those two bundles wrapped up in brown paper and tied and everything?”

“Those are the ones,” nodded Grandmother.  “I saw them the other morning when I unpacked your trunk but we were in a hurry to get-out doors then so I didn’t ask about them.  What are they?”

“I don’t know,” said Mary Jane.  “Mother put them in and she said you’d understand.  She said just let you see and you’d know what she meant.”

“Then I guess I know,” said Grandmother, laughing.  “We have to look at them!”

“Let’s go now,” said Mary Jane.

“Oh, my no,” replied Grandmother, “before breakfast?  I should say not!  We’ll do all the things we planned to do, right straight through the plan.  Then we’ll get those bundles and see if I can guess what your mother meant.”

Mary Jane liked the good breakfast Grandmother prepared and she loved helping set the table and clear it off and help with the work like a grown-up person, but she was glad when at last everything was done and she and Grandmother went up the stairs to look at those mysterious bundles.

“You get the bundles out of your trunk, Mary Jane,” said Grandmother, “and I’ll get my glasses.”

“Then shall we go down’ to the sitting-room?” asked Mary Jane.

“No, we’ll stay right up here,” said Grandmother, smiling, “because unless I miss my guess, we’ll want to be up here before we’re through anyway.”

That puzzled Mary Jane more than ever because, in all the three days she had been there.  Grandmother had never sat upstairs, but always in her big rocker at the bay window in the room they called the sitting-room.  She hurried to her room, raised the cover of her little trunk and turned it way back so it wouldn’t fall on her.  Then she reached in and got out the two bundles, and hurried back to Grandmother’s room.