“There are our trunks, Mrs. Pitt,” called John. “I know them by the C’s we pasted on the ends.”
“Here, porter, put this luggage on a four-wheeler, please,” and Mrs. Pitt and her charges crowded in, the luggage was piled on top, and they drove away.
“Do you think you will like London?” asked Barbara of Betty, rather anxiously.
Betty ventured to answer, “Oh, I think so, only it is very different from New York.”
It certainly was! Great, top-heavy buses swung and lurched past them, some of them drawn by splendid horses, but still more with motors. The outsides of the vehicles were covered with all sorts of gay advertisements and signs, in bright and vivid colors; in this way, and in their tremendous numbers, they differ from the New York buses on Fifth Avenue.
“To-night, we will take you out for a ride on top of a bus if you like, John,” said Philip.
John, losing his shyness, began to ask questions, and to give his opinion of the things he saw.
“I think the buses are great! I shall always choose that seat just behind the driver, where I can talk to him. He must have fine stories to tell, doesn’t he, Philip? I like the hansoms, too. There really seem to be more hansoms than anything else in London! Just look, Betty, at that long row there in the middle of the street! I suppose they are waiting for passengers. And there’s a line of ‘taxis,’ too. My, but these streets are crowded! Fifth Avenue isn’t in it!”
Philip and Barbara looked at each other and smiled. All the sights which were so familiar to them, seemed very novel to their American visitors.
“I suppose it would be just the same to us, if we were to visit New York,” said Barbara. “Those bus-horses, which you admire, do look very fine at first, but the work is so hard on them, that they only last a very short time. Their days are about over now, for soon we shall have only the motor-buses.”