who still felt as if
the tickets would be much nicer without the little hole in them.

"Yes, there will be three more holes made in them before we give them
up," Aunt Emma answered.

"Give them up?" echoed Ruby. "What do you mean, Aunt Emma? We don't
give them to any body, do we?"

"Yes, just before we get off the cars the conductor will take them."

"It seems pretty dreadful to spend so much money for tickets and then
not be allowed to keep them," Ruby said. "Don't you think he would let
me keep mine just to remember the journey by, if I should ask him?"

"No, he could not do that," Aunt Emma answered. "You will have to give
yours up just as every one else will. But you have had a long ride for
the ticket, you know, Ruby, so you must not feel as if your ticket had
been taken away and you had received nothing in exchange."

"Oh, I forgot that," Ruby answered, and then she leaned her face
against the window and looked out again at the places they were
passing. By and by the old gentleman in the seat in front of Ruby
looked around and when he saw the little girl, he smiled at her with a
pair of very kind blue eyes, and said,--

"Little girl, don't you want to come in here and visit me a little
while?"

Ruby was very willing to do this, for she was tired of looking out of
the window, and Aunt Emma had a headache and did not feel like talking;
so in a minute she had slipped past her aunt, and was in the next seat,
very willing to be entertained.

The old gentleman was very fond of little girls, and as he had a whole
host of grandchildren, he knew just what little girls and boys liked.
He told Ruby some funny stories about the way people had to travel
before steam cars were in use, and then he told her about the first
school he ever went to, and how he had to go all alone, and had a
pretty hard time with the older boys, who were very fond of teasing
younger ones.

Ruby was very much interested, and told him in return that she, too,
was going to school for the first time.

By and by a boy came through the cars with a basket on his arm.

"Oranges, apples, bananas, pears," he called out, and the old gentleman
beckoned to him.

"Come here, and let this little lady choose what she would like to
have," he said; and the boy brought the basket to Ruby, and rested it
upon the arm of the seat, while she looked into it.

The old gentleman was very, very nice, she thought, for he not only
knew how to be so enter