"I don't see no other way and you needn't feel bad, Hannah, because we don't look stylish. You may be a school teacher some day," predicted her mother. "Fact is we're all going to have a chance to be folks, and if I was you young ones, I'd try and forget what we look like now, and think hard about how fine we'll look next time we go on the cars with our trunks and umbrells and land knows what; and when we all get set down in the Grand Central Station to wait for the cars, I'll tell you where we're going and all about it."
"Thaketh alive, ma! it don't theem ath if I could ever get there with tho many thingth on, and thay! but you look—"
"You start your boots," interrupted the mother of Stubbins, "or you'll feel worse'n you look."
CHAPTER VI
HOW STUBBINS WENT TO SEE MR. HODGKINS
Tom Randall, Cornelia Mary, and Sally met the Mulvaneys with a lumber wagon. In spite of all Cornelia Mary could do to prevent such actions, Tom fairly shouted when he saw the family lifted from the train by the grinning brakeman, while Sally's face was the colour of a poppy as she went forward to greet her friends. It wasn't easy to claim the Mulvaneys in the presence of the amused passengers, whose faces filled the car windows. It was a relief to hear the engine whistle and see the train start.
"We're going right straight to your house," Sally told Mrs. Mulvaney. "Mamma is there this morning waiting for you. Why won't the children talk? What's the matter? Have they lost their tongues?"
"They never was on the cars before," explained Mrs. Mulvaney, "and they behaved real well. They act kind of bashful now." Whereupon the seven looked foolish, and wouldn't speak to Sally. Even Stubbins was dumb.
"This is your new teacher," Sally continued by way of introducing the family, "and that boy on the front seat is her brother Tom. Climb in, children. Where will you sit, Mrs. Mulvaney?"
"I'll just hist myself on to the front seat with the boy," was the reply, and that must have been the reason Tom drove home by way of Park's Corner instead of through the village.