"There goes the bell, uncle," said Bessie. "You'd better go, or you will be carried along with us."
The old gentleman bent over and kissed his niece. Our hero thought he should have been willing to relieve him of the duty. The young girl beside him looked so fresh and pretty that, though he was too young to fall in love, he certainly did feel considerable pleasure in the thought that she was to be his companion in a journey of several hundred miles. It gave him a feeling of importance, being placed in charge of her, and he couldn't help wondering whether he would have got the chance if he had been dressed in his old street suit.
"There's a good deal in clo's," thought Tom, philosophically. "It makes all the difference between a young gentleman and a bootblack."
"Would you like to sit by the window?" he asked, by way of being sociable and polite.
"Oh, no! I can see very well from here," said the young lady. "Do you come from Buffalo?"
"No; I am from New York."
"I never was there; I should like to go very much. I have heard that Central Park is a beautiful place."
"Yes, it's a bully place," said Tom.
Bessie laughed.
"That's a regular boy's word," she said. "Miss Wiggins, our teacher, was always horrified when she heard any of us girls use it. I remember one day I let it out without thinking, and she heard it. 'Miss Benton,' said she, 'never again let me hear you employ that inelegant expression. That a young lady under my charge should, even once, have been guilty of such a breach of propriety, mortifies me extremely.'"