Uncle Tom Curtis returned to Pittsburgh the next day, leaving Jean and Beacon to stay with Uncle Bob until October. It was now April, and on the Common and Public Garden the trees, which were beginning to break into delicate foliage, were invaded by scores of scampering gray squirrels so tame that they would eat out of one"s hand. Often in the morning when Jean walked to the office with Uncle Bob she would stop to feed these hungry little creatures and also the flocks of friendly pigeons cl.u.s.tering along the walks. Of course Beacon had to be left behind when the family went on such strolls, for he was far too fond of chasing everything he saw; afternoon was his gala time. Then, while Jean flew on roller skates along the broad asphalt Esplanade bordering the Charles River, Beacon would race up and down dodging the skaters, playing with the children, and nearly tripping up the throngs of nurse-maids who trundled their wee charges in the bright sunshine.

How quickly the days pa.s.sed!

Already the Beacon Hill house had become a real home, and Uncle Bob dearer each moment she stayed in it.

"You know, Uncle Bob, you would be really perfect if only you liked dolls and could tie hair ribbons," said Jean teasingly.

Uncle Bob shook his head ruefully.

"I never could care for sawdust people," said he, "when there were so many interesting real ones in the world. As for the hair ribbons, perhaps I might learn to tie those in time, although I doubt if I ever could make as perky a bow as Hannah does. I like the _perk_ but I haven"t the faintest idea how to get it."

Jean laughed.

She and her uncle had many a joke together.

"He is better at a joke than Uncle Tom is," confided Jean to Hannah.

In fact Uncle Bob joked so much that it was hard to tell when he was serious, and so one day when he came into the library where Jean was and swept all the dolls on the couch over into the corner, laughingly demanding how Jean would like to go to Europe, she paid no attention to him.

"Seems to me you are not a very enthusiastic or grateful young woman,"

said he at last tweaking a curl that hung low on her cheek. "Here I am inviting you to tour the world with me and all you say is: "I"ll think about it!" How"s that for grat.i.tude?"

"If you had any intention of taking me I might be more grateful," Jean answered, fastening the gown of the doll she was dressing, and holding her at arm"s length to enjoy the effect.

"But I am entirely serious, my young friend; I never was more so. I am imploring you to go to Italy, for go I must, and I have no mind to leave you behind."

"To Italy? To real Italy, Uncle Bob? Do you mean it?"

"I surely do, dear child. Behold me, solemn as an owl. Ah, now you begin to listen. It would serve you right if I should refuse to take such an ungrateful lady. What say you? Should you like to go?"

"Like it! I"d love it! I"ve never been on an ocean trip in all my life."

"You may not care to go on another after you"ve been on this one,"

chuckled Uncle Bob. "However, the fact remains that we are going. I have charge of decorating a very beautiful house in the suburbs and I am going over to Florence to order some marble stairways and fireplaces. That is my excuse. Incidentally we can make a pleasant trip out of it and see many places besides Italy."

"Could we go to Venice?" burst out Jean. "Venice is in Italy, isn"t it?

I"d like of all places to see Venice with its water streets and its gondolas."

"Yes, honey, you certainly shall see Venice and ride in all the gondolas you like."

"Splendid!" cried Jean, clapping her hands. "When can we start? Let"s go right away," and springing up from the couch she whirled toward the door.

"Slowly, slowly!" protested Uncle Bob. "Come back here to me a moment, you flyaway. Many things must be decided before we sail for Italy. In the first place there is Hannah; what shall we do with her?"

"Oh, Hannah must come along with us," Jean answered. "She"ll have to.

We never could think of going to Europe and leaving good old Hannah, who is so kind to both of us, now could we? Besides, she has to fix my hair every morning, and mend my clothes. I"d be coming to pieces all over Europe if Hannah didn"t go."

"Well, then, that settles it. Hannah goes. I never could consent to escort a young lady who might drop to pieces at any moment and strew her belongings all along the route from Italy to Scotland. Now about Esther, the waitress. She wants to go West and visit her brother; this will be just the chance. Suppose we tie a long string to her and let her go. Then we come to Beacon."

"Beacon would go with us, of course," Jean replied quickly. "You may be sure I"d never leave Beacon at home. I"d rather not go myself."

"But, girlie, we couldn"t very well----"

"Why, Uncle Bob! You don"t mean to say you thought of leaving Beacon!

If you did I simply sha"n"t go. That"s all there is about it. I shall never, never be parted from Beacon--never!"

"Listen, dear. Beacon wouldn"t enjoy going. We could not get for him the food to which he is accustomed, nor would they admit him to the picture galleries which we shall visit. I doubt if he would even care for the gondolas."

"No, I"m sure he would not like the gondolas," admitted Jean smiling faintly, "because Hannah and I tried him on the swan-boats in the Public Garden and he hated them; he just barked and snarled all the time, and wriggled about so in my arms that he nearly went overboard and carried me with him."

"That"s just it! That is precisely the way he would feel on shipboard.

Now my plan is this. We"ll send him out to Pittsburgh for Uncle Tom to take care of until you get back. Then when you go out there in October your doggie will be nicely settled in his other home and waiting for you. In fact," confessed Uncle Bob a little sheepishly, "I wrote Uncle Tom and asked how he would feel about adding a puppy to his household.

This is his answer:

""_European plan excellent. Send Beacon. Next best thing to Jean._""

"Dear Uncle Tom! He is awfully good, isn"t he?"

"Yes, he is. I fancy he will decide so, too, when he finds all his sofa cushions torn, and his shoes chewed up," chuckled Uncle Bob. "Let him take his turn at it."

Beacon provided for, the remainder of the European plan seemed simple enough. To be sure there was Hannah, who at first flatly refused to be separated from the golden dome of the State House or from the Boston "Evening Transcript." At last, however, after much persuasion she consented to suffer these deprivations for the common good, and brought herself to purchasing the necessary clothing for Jean and herself. To these she added French, German and Italian dictionaries because, as she explained: "We might get lost or parted from your Uncle Bob somehow, and you never can tell what will happen in those heathen countries where the poor people cannot speak English. How men and women can live in places where they talk those dreadful languages and use that queer money when they might come over here to Boston----"

"That"s right, Hannah," agreed Uncle Bob, playfully urging her on.

"And all that strange weather! Why, I read only the other day that in Italy they just have summer all the year round. So foolish! They never get any snow at all--think of that! It is such a slack and lazy way to do always to be wearing one set of things and never getting out any winter flannels. I shouldn"t know where I was if I didn"t chalk off the seasons by my house cleaning, preserving, getting out the furs, and putting them away. I just know those Italians live without any system.

How could they be expected to have any when it"s summer all the time?"

She sniffed scornfully.

In fact Hannah sniffed a good many times before the great ship which was carrying them to Naples docked beneath the shadow of Vesuvius. The staterooms she termed little coops, and the berths nothing more nor less than shelves.

"When I go to bed, Mr. Bob, I feel exactly as if I was a sheet put away in the linen closet."

Uncle Bob and Jean both laughed. Hannah kept them royally entertained.

"As for these clocks that strike every hour but the right one--I"ve nothing to say," she went on. "If the captain prefers to ring two when he means nine, well and good. He runs the ship and it is his lookout, although I will say it is hard on the rest of us. He explains that it has something to do with the watch--whose watch I don"t know; his own, I suppose. Evidently he has some queer way of telling time, some theory he is free to work out when he is here in the middle of the ocean away from land. Be glad, Jean, that you learned to tell time properly, and that you live with people who are content to use the old method and do not set themselves up to invent a system that is a puzzle to every one but themselves."

Thus Hannah measured every new experience, applying to it the Beacon Hill standard. If it conformed to what was done in Boston it was quite correct, but if it varied in the least it was condemned as "ridiculous."

To Jean, on the contrary, the voyage was one of unending delight. She proved herself an excellent sailor, and was never tired of playing shuffle-board on the deck or pacing to and fro with Uncle Bob in the fresh breeze. And when at last Gibraltar was reached and she actually beheld the coasts of Spain, Africa and Italy, her wonder grew until she said she had to pinch herself to be sure she was alive and not dreaming. It was a journey of marvels.

"I feel exactly as if I had gone down the rabbit hole with Alice," she exclaimed, squeezing Uncle Bob"s arm as they were disembarking at Naples.

Uncle Bob was in such a hurry to reach Florence that the travelers did not stay long in Naples--only long enough to visit the famous Aquarium with its myriad of strange sea creatures, and to take a flying glimpse of the Museum. It was at the latter place that Jean saw the celebrated Naples Vase which, Uncle Bob told her, was found over a hundred years ago in a tomb in Pompeii.

"It probably was made by very skilful Grecian workmen about the year 70 A. D. Think how wonderful it is that there were artists living many thousands of years ago who knew how to make such a beautiful thing.

Look closely at it, Jean, for it is one of the art treasures of the world."

Jean looked.