live in this
neighborhood; she has only come here to have an interview with Ida."

"Shall you bring her back to-night?" asked Mrs. Crump.

"I may keep her till to-morrow," said the nurse. "After eight years'
absence, that will seem short enough."

To this, Mrs. Crump agreed, but thought that it would seem long to her,
she had been so accustomed to have Ida present at meals.

The nurse walked as far as Broadway, holding Ida by the hand.

"Where are we going?" asked the child, timidly. "Are we going to walk
all the way?"

"No," said the nurse, "we shall ride. There is an omnibus coming now. We
will get into it."

She beckoned to the driver who stopped his horse. Ida and her companion
got in.

They got out at the Jersey City ferry.

"Did you ever ride in a steamboat?" asked Mrs. Hardwick, in a tone
intended to be gracious.

"Once or twice," said Ida. "I went with brother Jack once, over to
Hoboken. Are we going there, now?"

"No, we are going over to the city, you can see over the water."

"What is it? Is it Brooklyn?"

"No, it is Jersey City."

"Oh, that will be pleasant," said Ida, forgetting, in her childish love
of novelty, the repugnance with which the nurse had inspired her.

"Yes, and that is not all; we are going still further," said the nurse.

"Are we going further?" asked Ida, her eyes sparkling. "Where are we
going?"

"To a town on the line of the railroad."

"And shall we ride in the cars?" asked the child, with animation.

"Yes, didn't you ever ride in the cars before?"

"No, never."

"I think you will like it."

"Oh, I know I shall. How fast do the cars go?"

"Oh, a good many miles an hour,--maybe thirty."

"And how long will it take us to go to the place you are going to carry
me to!"

"I don't know exactly,--perhaps two hours."

"Two whole hours in the cars!" exclaimed Ida. "How much I shall have to
tell father and Jack when I get back."

"So you will," said Mrs. Hardwick, with an unaccountable smile, "when
you get back."

There was something peculiar in her tone as she pronounced these last
words, but Ida did not notice it.

So Ida, despite her company, actually enjoyed, in her bright
anticipation, a keen sense of pleasure.

"Are we most there?" she asked, after riding about two hours.

"It won't be long," said the nurse.

"We must have come ever so many miles," said Ida.

An hour passed. She amused herself by gazing out of the car windows at
the towns which s