"There was a close call for you! We'd have lost it if I hadn't spoken
to that guard, just in fun! There we were calmly waiting, and all of a
sudden, we took that wild dash across the bridge! It was great! I
hope somebody caught a photograph of us! I'd like to see one! How
stupid of the guard to make that mistake! They never seem to know very
much, anyway. If I ever am a guard, I shall be different; I shall know
things!"

They all had a good laugh over the adventure, and Mrs. Pitt assured
John that when he was a guard, they would all promise to use his
station.

"Don't these trains seem different from ours, Betty?" the future guard
asked of his sister. "It seems so queer to me why they want to take a
perfectly good, long car, and chop it up from side to side, into
little narrow rooms, like this! What's the use of having so many
doors?--one on each side of every 'compartment'! And then, they put
handles only on the outside, so you have to let down the window and
lean away out to open it for yourself, if the guard doesn't happen to
do it for you! We Americans couldn't waste so much time!"

Just then, Betty, who could contain herself no longer, burst out
laughing.

"Why, what in the world's the matter?" cried Barbara.

Betty could only point to a passing train. "It's only the funny
little freight cars!" she finally explained, rather ashamed that she
had let her feelings escape in that way. "They look so silly to us!
They seem about a third the size of the ones at home. Really, these
remind me of a picture in my history-book, of the first train ever run
in America!"

Mrs. Pitt smiled. "Yes, I can imagine just how strange they must seem
to you, for I remember very well how I felt the first time I ever rode
in one of your trains. To me, one of the most interesting things about
visiting a foreign country, is to see the different modes of travel."

"Oh, please understand that I think so, too!" urged Betty. "It was
only that I couldn't help laughing just at first, you see. I wouldn't
have your trains just like ours for anything, and I'm sure that John
wouldn't either."

[Illustration: "WHAT'S THE USE OF HAVING SO MANY DOORS?"--_Page 39._]

"Now," said Mrs. Pitt, "there is a little confession which I feel that
I ought to make. It's about where we are going to-day. Probably most
people would blame me for not taking you to Windsor or Hampton Court,
on your first trip out of town. Both those places are charming, but
I w