MAKING FRIENDS.
By and by a man dressed in blue clothes with brass buttons came through
the car, stopping at each seat and looking at people's tickets.
"That is the conductor, and he wants to look at the tickets," said Aunt
Emma. "Would you like to give him the tickets, Ruby?"
Of course Ruby wanted to do this, and she changed places with Aunt
Emma, and sat at the end of the seat, waiting for the conductor to come.
She felt very grown-up and important as she handed the little pieces of
pasteboard to him, and wondered whether he would think that she was
taking her Aunt Emma on a journey because she had the tickets; but the
conductor rather disappointed her. He did not seem to be at all
surprised that a little girl should give him the tickets, but he took
them and after looking at them for a moment, punched a little hole in
them.
This did not please Ruby at all. She had not noticed that he had done
this same thing to every one else's ticket, and she exclaimed,--
"Please don't do that, you will spoil those tickets, and they are all
we have got."
The conductor smiled, and so did several other people who had heard
Ruby's speech.
"I have n't spoiled the tickets, sissy," the conductor said
good-naturedly.
When he went on to the next seat Ruby showed the tickets to her Aunt
Emma.
"He says he did not spoil them, but I just think he did," she
whispered. "I think it spoils tickets to have a hole made in them,
don't you, Aunt Emma? Now spose they are not good any more, how shall
we get to school? Will they put us off the cars?"
"The tickets will be all right, Ruby," Aunt Emma answered smilingly.
"Now put them back in my pocket-book again, so that they will not get
lost, and by and by another conductor will get on the train and will
want to see them, and then you shall show them to him."
"Will he make another hole in them?" asked Ruby, who still felt as if
the tickets would be much nicer without the little hole in them.
"Yes, there will be three more holes made in them before we give them
up," Aunt Emma answered.
"Give them up?" echoed Ruby. "What do you mean, Aunt Emma? We don't
give them to any body, do we?"
"Yes, just before we get off the cars the conductor will take them."
"It seems pretty dreadful to spend so much money for tickets and then
not be allowed to keep them," Ruby said. "Don't you think he would let
me keep mine just to remember the journey by, if I should ask him?"
"No, he could not do that," Aunt Emma answered. "You will have to give
yours up just as every one else will. But you have had a long ride for
the ticket, you know, Ruby, so you must not feel as if your ticket had
been taken away and you had received nothing in exchange."
"Oh, I forgot that," Ruby answered, and then she leaned her face
against the window and looked out again at the places they were
passing. By and by the old gentleman in the seat in front of Ruby
looked around and when he saw the little girl, he smiled at her with a
pair of very kind blue eyes, and said,--
"Little girl, don't you want to come in here and visit me a little
while?"
Ruby was very willing to do this, for she was tired of looking out of
the window, and Aunt Emma had a headache and did not feel like talking;
so in a minute she had slipped past her aunt, and was in the next seat,
very willing to be entertained.
The old gentleman was very fond of little girls, and as he had a whole
host of grandchildren, he knew just what little girls and boys liked.
He told Ruby some funny stories about the way people had to travel
before steam cars were in use, and then he told her about the first
school he ever went to, and how he had to go all alone, and had a
pretty hard time with the older boys, who were very fond of teasing
younger ones.
Ruby was very much interested, and told him in return that she, too,
was going to school for the first time.
By and by a boy came through the cars with a basket on his arm.
"Oranges, apples, bananas, pears," he called out, and the old gentleman
beckoned to him.
"Come here, and let this little lady choose what she would like to
have," he said; and the boy brought the basket to Ruby, and rested it
upon the arm of the seat, while she looked into it.
The old gentleman was very, very nice, she thought, for he not only
knew how to be so entertaining, but he called Ruby "a little lady," and
if there was one thing in all the world that Ruby liked better than
another it was to be considered grown-up, and to be spoken of as a
little lady.
The old gypsy woman had called her a little lady, though Ruby did not
like to remember her, but it was quite proper that a little girl who
was going to boarding-school should be considered grown-up, even if she
did not have long dresses on.
"What will you have, my dear?" asked the old gentleman. "Will you have
an orange or a banana, or is there something else you would prefer?"
A large yellow Bartlett pear attracted Ruby's eyes.
"I think I would like this," she answered.
"Very well, my dear," he said. "Now as my eyes are not very good,
would you be kind enough to take some money out of my pocketbook and
pay the boy?"
This was even still more delightful, and Ruby felt as if long dresses
could not make her feel one inch more grown-up than she felt when she
opened the big purse with its brass clasps, took out some money, and
paid the boy, receiving some pennies in change which she dropped back
into the purse again.
"I see you are quite used to making purchases," said the old gentleman,
with a funny little twinkle in his eye, as he watched the happy little
face beside him.
"I don't very often buy anything and pay the money for it," Ruby said
truthfully. "That is, except at the store, and that don't seem to
count because mamma always gives me just the right money, all wrapped
up so I won't lose it. But I think it is very nice to buy things.
Didn't you want a pear, too, sir?"
"No, thank you," answered the old gentleman. "Now would you like to
have me fix the pear so you can eat it without getting any juice upon
your pretty dress?"
"Yes, please," Ruby answered, so he spread a newspaper upon his lap,
and taking out his knife, cut the pear into quarters, and proceeded to
peel it, and cut it into nice little pieces, just the right size to eat.
Ruby watched him with a great deal of interest. She liked him more and
more all the time, and she was quite sure that it would be very nice to
be one of his grandchildren, of whom he had told her.
It had been some time now since Ruby and Aunt Emma had started upon
their journey, and when Aunt Emma saw what the old gentleman was doing
she leaned forward and offered Ruby the lunch-basket.
"It would be very nice for you to eat your lunch now, if you are
hungry," she said. "Suppose you eat a sandwich first, and then the
pear, and some cake afterwards. You can offer the basket to your
friend, and perhaps he would like a sandwich, too."
Ruby was very much pleased to find that the old gentleman thought that
this would be a very good plan, and that he was glad of a sandwich, so
the party had quite a little picnic together. Aunt Emma ate her lunch
too, and Ruby spread the white napkin that was in the top of the
lunch-box over her lap, and laid the sandwiches out upon it, so that
the old gentleman might help himself.
The pear was such a big one that Ruby could divide it both with the old
gentleman and with Aunt Emma and still have plenty for herself, and
some time passed very pleasantly in eating the lunch, and putting what
was left carefully back into the box again.
By this time Ruby had begun to be very tired of riding in the cars.
She did not want to look out of the window any more, and she began to
feel a little homesick. She grew very quiet, as she began to wonder
what Ruthy was doing just now. The old gentleman had told her that it
was eleven o'clock, so she knew that Ruthy was probably having a nice
game at recess with the other children. This was the first day of
school at home, and Ruby remembered how she had always enjoyed that
first day. It was so pleasant to put everything to rights in her desk
just as she meant to have it all the year, to have her old seat by
Ruthy where she had sat ever since she first began to go to school, and
to look at the new scholars, and wonder whether she would have much
trouble in keeping at the head of the class.
The old gentleman wondered what made his little companion so quiet, and
looking down at her, he saw the tears beginning to gather in her eyes.
He guessed a little of what she was thinking about. Of course he could
not know all about school, and about Ruthy, but he knew she was
thinking about some one at home.
He looked back, and saw that Aunt Emma had put her head down upon the
back of the seat, and with a handkerchief over her face was trying to
take a little nap in the hope that it would help her aching head. He
wondered what he could do to keep Ruby from becoming homesick and tired.
"Let me tell you about one of my little grandchildren," he said, and
Ruby winked the tears away and looked up at him. "She is a little girl
just about your age, and sometimes when we go on a journey together, as
we often do,--for every year I go and get her, and bring her to stay
with me for two or three weeks in the summer time,--she gets tired of
riding in the cars so long at once, and what do you suppose she does?"
"What does she do?" asked Ruby.
"She reaches into my pocket,--this outside pocket, here,--and takes out
this handkerchief, so," and the old gentleman drew out a large silk
handkerchief from the pocket that was next to Ruby. "Then she spreads
it upon my shoulder just so,--and I put my arm about her, and she
cuddles up to me and puts her head down on the handkerchief and takes a
nice nap. Then when she wakes up we are almost ready to get off, and
she has not minded the long ride. I wonder if you would not like to
put your head down here a few minutes, and see if you like it as well
as Ellie does. And then if such a thing should happen as that you
should go to sleep, why, that would be so much the better."
Ruby hesitated. She did not feel as if any one who was old enough to
go to boarding-school ought to be such a baby as to go asleep on the
way, but she was very tired. She had awakened almost before it was
light that morning, and she had been so excited over her journey that
she could not keep still for a moment, and then the long ride was
making her still more tired. The handkerchief, and the strong arm
looked very inviting, and when she looked back and saw that Aunt Emma
had gone to sleep, too, that quite decided her.
She slipped up nearer to the old gentleman, and taking off her hat,
handed it to him to put up in the rack over head. Then she laid her
head down upon the silk handkerchief, and he put his arm about her, and
drew her up closely to him.
"It makes me think of the way papa holds me," she said, but the thought
of her papa made two big tears splash down upon the silk handkerchief.
"Shall I tell you where I went with my father when I was a little boy,"
the old gentleman asked,--without seeming to notice the tears,--and
then he began a long story which somehow put the tired little girl fast
asleep, and the next thing she knew, Aunt Emma was telling her that it
was time for her to think about getting her hat on, for they had almost
reached their journey's end.
"Have I boon asleep?" asked Ruby, starting up and rubbing her eyes.
"I should say so," said the old gentleman, looking at his watch.
"Guess how long a nap you have taken, little girl."
"Ten minutes?" asked Ruby, who thought she must only have just closed
her eyes, since she could not remember having slept at all. The last
thing that she remembered was listening to the old gentleman's story,
and then it had seemed as if the very next thing was being awakened by
Aunt Emma's voice.
"Ten minutes, and ever so much more," the old gentleman answered with a
smile. "You have been asleep just two hours."
"Two hours!" and Ruby's eyes were wide open with surprise. "Why, I
never remembered that."
"You were sleeping too sound to remember anything," her friend said.
"Well, I am glad you have had a nice rest, and now you will enjoy
reaching your journey's end all the more. I shall miss you very much
when you get out, for you have been very pleasant company."
"I wasn't very nice when I was asleep, I am afraid," said Ruby, "It was
n't very polite of me to go to sleep, was it?"
"Oh, yes it was when I invited you to," the gentleman said. "And I
enjoyed it, for it seemed just like having my little granddaughter here
with me."
Aunt Emma helped Ruby put her hat on straight, and brushed the dust
from her dress. The engine began to whistle, and that meant that they
were very near a station.
Ruby said good-by to her kind friend, and he gave her his card with his
name upon it, and asked her to write him a letter after she had been at
school a little while and tell him how she liked it, and how she was
getting on in her lessons.
Ruby promised that she would; and then the train began to go more
slowly, and at last stopped with a little jerk at a station, and Aunt
Emma said,--
"Here we are at last, Ruby."
For just a moment Ruby was not glad. She suddenly began to feel a
little shy about boarding school, and remembered what she had not
thought much about before,--that she would have to meet a great many
strange girls, and that it would take some time to become acquainted
with them,--and she wished again, as she had wished many times before,
that Ruthy might have come with her; but she had not much time to think
about anything, for the train did not wait very long for people to get
out, and in a few moments Aunt Emma and Ruby were on the platform of
the station and Ruby was waving good-by to the kind old gentleman, who
was leaning out of the window to see the last of his little friend.