"One way 'tis and another way 'tisn't," said Grandfather.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Mary Jane, "that's the kind I never can guess!"
Then she thought carefully for a real good question. "Is it brown or
gray?"

Grandfather leaned back and laughed. When he finally could answer he
said, "It's partly grayish brown and some day it may be all brown for
a' I know."

"Then it isn't a mouse and it isn't a lamb," said Mary Jane positively,
"and that's all I can think of now."

"That's a good thing," said Grandmother, "for there's the postman and I
surely expect a letter from your mother to-day."

One of the things that Mary Jane most loved to do was to run out front
when the rural mail carrier came along in his little wagon and watch
him put the mail in the box out in front of her grandfather's house.
Usually they spied him way down the road just about the time they were
through dinner and Mary Jane would run out and watch him. The first
time he saw her he handed the mail out to her and that disappointed her
greatly. She had wanted to see him put the mail in the box as
Grandfather had told her he would. So on the second day, Grandfather
went out with her and explained to the carrier that little girls from
the city liked mail that came in boxes better than mail that was just
handed in city fashion. And after that, the carrier smiled and nodded
to her each time and then tucked the mail as carefully into the box as
though he didn't know she would take it out the first minute he was out
of sight.