oking me."

Norton laughed, and opened the window, and Matilda putting her face
close to the opening was able to get a breath of fresh air. Then she
enjoyed herself again. The grey dawn was brightening over the fields;
the morning air was brisk and frosty; and as soon as Matilda's lungs
could play freely again, so could her imagination. How pretty the dusky
clumps of trees were against the brightening sky; how lovely that
growing light in the east, which every moment rose stronger and
revealed more. The farm houses they passed looked as if they had not
waked up yet; barns and farmyards were waiting for the day's work to
begin; a waggoner or two, going slowly to the station, were all the
moving things they saw. The omnibus passed them, and lumbered on.

"Norton," said Matilda suddenly, bringing her face round from the
window, "it's delicious to be up so early."

"Unless you are obliged to take other people's breakfast before you get
your own," said Norton. He looked disgusted, and Matilda could not help
laughing in her turn.

"Put your nose to my window,--you can," she said. "The air is as sweet
as can be."

"Outside"--grumbled Norton.

"Well, that is what I am getting," said Matilda. "Can't you get some of
it?--poor Norton!"

"What I don't understand," said Norton, "is how people live."

At this point, the old woman with the basket got out, where a cross
road branched off. Matilda was obliged to move up into the vacated
place, to make more room for the others; and she lost her open window.
However, the river came in sight now; the end of the ride was near; and
soon she and Norton stood on the steps of the station house.

"I don't believe my coat will get over it all day," said the latter.
"There ought to be two omnibuses."

"The poor people cannot help it, Norton; they are not to blame."

"Yes, they are," said Norton. "They might open their windows and air
their houses. They are not fit to be in a carriage with clean people."

"I guess they don't know any better," said Matilda; "and they were
rather poor people, Norton."

"Well?" said Norton. "That is what I say. There ought to be a coach for
them specially."

He went in to buy the tickets, and Matilda remained on the steps,
wondering a little why there should be poor people in the world. Why
could not all have open windows and free air and sweet dresses? Being
poor, she knew, was somehow at the bottom of it; and why should there
be such differences? A