uite delightful to observe the earnestness with which these two
devoted themselves to the training of honeysuckle and jessamine over a
trellis-work porch in that preposterously small garden, in which there
was such a wealth of sweet peas, and roses, and marigolds, and
mignonette, and scarlet geraniums, and delicately-coloured heliotropes,
that it seemed as though they were making love in the midst of a glowing
furnace. Gertie was there too, like a small female Cupid nestling among
the flowers.

"A miniature paradise," whispered Emma, with twinkling eyes, as they
approached the unconscious pair.

"Yes, with Adam and Eve training the flowers," responded Netta quite
earnestly.

Adam making love in the fustian costume of the fireman of the "Flying
Dutchman" was an idea which must have struck Emma in some fashion, for
she found it difficult to command her features when introduced to the
inhabitants of that little Eden by her friend.

"I have called to tell Mrs Marrot," said Netta, "that my old nurse,
Mrs Durby, is going to London soon, and that I wished your father to
take a sort of charge of her, more for the sake of making her feel at
ease than anything else."

"I'm quite sure he will be delighted to do that," said Loo; "won't he,
Will?"

"Why, yes," replied the fireman, "your father is not the man to see a
woman in distress and stand by. He'll give her in charge of the guard,
for you see, ma'am, he's not allowed to leave his engine." Will
addressed the latter part of his remarks to Netta.

"That is just what Mrs Marrot said, and that will do equally well.
Would _you_ like to travel on the railway, Gertie?" said Netta,
observing that the child was gazing up in her face with large earnest
eyes.

"No," answered Gertie, with decision.

"No; why not?"

"Because it takes father too often away, and once it nearly killed him,"
said Gertie.

"Ah, that was the time that my own dear mother received such a shock, I
suppose?"

"No, ma'am," said Will Garvie, "Gertie is thinkin' of another time, when
Jack Marrot was drivin' an excursion train--not three years gone by, and
he ran into a lot of empty trucks that had broke loose from a train in
advance. They turned the engine off the rails, and it ran down an
embankment into a ploughed field, where it turned right over on the top
of Jack. Fortunately he fell between the funnel and the steam-dome,
which was the means of savin' his life; but he got a bad shake, and was