and he did not know either of them.

"Ticket-office isn't open at this hour," John explained to Dora. "We'll
have to pay on the train. We change cars at Bristol. I'll pay that far
and we may stop there and rest. This night traveling may go hard with a
little thing like you. I've got to attend to you, Sis--eh? Did you catch
that? It slipped out as natural as you please, and Sis it is, from now
on. Yes, I've got to see that you are fed properly and have a tonic to
get your blood right."

When the train came they got aboard. The car was about half full of
passengers, nearly all of whom were asleep. John led his wide-eyed
charge to a seat, put a valise down for a pillow, and made her take off
her hat and lie down. "Close your peepers and take a nap," he jested.
"I'm going into the smoker and light my pipe."

A half-hour later he came back. She was asleep. Her hat had fallen to
the floor, and he carefully placed it in the rack overhead. Her features
in repose appeared almost angelic, despite the fact that the cinders had
drifted in at the window and lay on the young cheeks beneath the fallen
lashes.

"Poor little rat!" he said to himself. "You are in bad hands, Sis, but
maybe no worse off than you were." He recalled Eperson's studied
courtesy and attention to Martha Jane and wondered if, after all,
Eperson were becoming his absent instructor.

He sat down in the seat across the aisle from Dora and looked out at the
window. The coming dawn was lighting the fields through which the train
was scurrying like a monster of fire and smoke. The eastern sky was
slowly filling with liquid gold. Dora slept till the sun was well up.
Then she stirred and waked. He saw her glance around the car in
amazement and then she saw him, smiled sheepishly, and flushed a little.

"I was dreaming," she said. "I thought I was flying away up in the air
and that I never would light."

"We are going to have some breakfast in a little while," he informed
her. "There is a dining-car on this train, and I'll order something
brought to us here. A little table fits in here under the window. Come
on, I'll show you where to wash your hands and face."

He led her to the ladies' lavatory, taught her how to supply the basin
with water. He got a towel from an overhead rack, showed her a brush and
comb that were for the use of passengers, and left her to make her
toilet.

She came back to him presently, looking brighter and better, and they
sat side by si