Mary Jane's City Home — Clara Ingram Judson

The late afternoon sunshine sent its slanting, golden rays through the car windows on to the map that Mary Jane and her sister Alice had spread out on the table between the seats of the Pullman in which they were riding. "And all that wiggly line is water?" Mary Jane was asking. "Every bit water," replied their father, who bent over their heads to explain what they were looking at; "a lot of water, you see. You remember I told you that Chicago is right on the edge of Lake Michigan. And Lake Michigan, so far as looks are concerned, might just as well be the ocean you saw down in Florida-it's so big you can't see the other side." "And does it have big waves?" asked Mary Jane. "Just you wait and see," promised Mr. Merrill. "Big waves I should say it has " "And all the green part of the map is parks," said Alice, quoting what her father had told them when he first showed them the map. "Then there must be a lot of parks," suggested Mary Jane with interest. "I think I'd like to live by a park," she added thoughtfully.