ightened in the night plucked
her by the sleeve and pulled her away. "Don't you see he's making fun of
you, mamma?"

Besides the grey-eyed girl, who wore short frocks, there were two other
girls in the first bloom of young-womanhood. One of these, having
overheard the conversation, ran and told the other.

"Just because we happened to read of such a thing in that book of
Asiatic travel! Isn't it absurd? And there's papa fuming at the other
end of the station."

Both girls giggled.

"I know _quite_ well that people will think us all crazy," urged the
first speaker. Then they laughed again, not unhappily.

"There's not a doubt of it," gasped the other.

These two girls were very much alike, but one wore a red cloak and the
other a blue one. In spite of the fact that they were somewhat bloused
and a little grimy, and their pretty little noses were now nipped red by
the icy morning, they looked attractive as they stood, pressing their
handkerchiefs to their mouths and bending with laughter. The extent of
their mirth was proportioned to their youth and excitement, not to the
circumstances which called it forth.

The train they had left now moved off. Most of the other passengers who
had alighted with them had taken themselves away in various directions,
as travellers are apt to do, without any one else noticing exactly what
had become of them.

Sophia, with the child in her arms, made her way to a mean waiting-room,
and thither the children followed her. The mother, having at last
ascertained the train would be ready in the course of time, soon came in
also, and the father and brother, hearing it would not be ready for at
least a quarter of an hour, went away to see the town.

There was a stove burning hotly in the small waiting-room. The only
other furniture was a bench all round the wall. The family, that had
entered somewhat tumultuously, almost filled it. There was only one
other traveller there, a big girl with a shawl over her head and a
bundle under her arm. When Sophia had come into the room alone with the
baby, she had asked the girl one or two questions, and been answered
civilly enough; but when the rest of the family followed, the girl
relapsed into silence, and, after regarding them for a little while, she
edged her way out of the room.

Mrs. Rexford, who in the excitement of change and bustle was always
subject to being struck with ideas which would not have occurred to her
mind at other times, sud