cate with some of the
gentlemen to whose care he intended to intrust the two children, planned
his journey to New York so as to arrive there in good season on Monday.
He supposed that he should be able, without any difficulty, to find one
or the other of them in the afternoon or evening of that day.

"And if worst comes to the worst," added he to himself, in his
reflections on the subject, "I can certainly find them at the ship, by
going on board an hour or two before she sails, and watching the plank
as the passengers come up from the pier."

Worst did come to the worst, it seems; for when Mr. George came home at
nine o'clock in the evening, on Monday, and Rollo came up to him very
eagerly in the parlor of the boarding house, to ask him whom he had
found to take charge of them, he was forced to confess that he had not
found any one.

"I am glad of it!" exclaimed Rollo, joyfully. "I am glad of it! I
like it a great deal better to take care of ourselves."

He then began dancing about the room, and finally ran off in great glee,
to inform Jane of the prospect before them. Rollo was very ambitious of
being considered a man.

He found Jane sitting on the stairs with another child of her own age,
that she had become acquainted with at the boarding house; for it was at
a boarding house, and not at a hotel, that Mr. George had taken lodgings
for his party. This child's name was Lottie; that is, she was commonly
called Lottie, though her real name was Charlotte. She was a beautiful
child, with beaming black eyes, a radiant face, and dark glossy curls of
hair hanging down upon her neck. Jane and Lottie were playing together
in a sort of recess at a landing of the stairs, where there was a sofa
and a window. They had tiger and the cage with them. The door was open
and tiger was playing about the cage, going in and out at her pleasure.

"Jane," said Rollo, "uncle George cannot find any body to take care of
you, and so _I_ am going to take care of you."

Jane did not answer.

"Are you going to England?" asked Lottie.

"Yes," replied Jane, mournfully; "and there is nobody to go with us, to
take care of us."

"I went to England once," said Lottie.

"Did you?" asked Jane; "and did you go across the Atlantic Ocean?"

"Yes," said Lottie.

"Of course she did," said Rollo; "there is no other way."

"And how did you get along?" said Jane.

"O, very well," said Lottie; "we had a very good time playing about the
decks and