BLARNEY CASTLE
Norah's friend, Mollie, had just got home from a long journey. At least it seemed a long one to Norah, who had never been farther away from home than the Lakes of Killarney.
Mollie had been all the way to Cork and Queenstown with her father and mother. They went to see Mollie's uncle start for America on a big steamer.
Queenstown is at the mouth of the River Lee. It used to be called the Cove of Cork, but the name was changed to Queenstown in honour of Queen Victoria.
It seemed a very big place to Mollie. As she described the queer cars running through the city, and the great steamers at the docks, it was a wonderful picture that little Norah saw in her mind.
Mollie had gone there in a railway train. When the guard shut her and her parents inside the car and locked the door, she was a little frightened at first. Then the engine gave a fearful shriek, and the train moved.
There were many other people in the car, or rather "compartment of the railway carriage," as they call it in the British Isles. Their cars are divided into three or four parts, with doors opening on the sides. Each part is called a compartment.
It was quite a jolly crowd. Every one seemed in good humour, and strangers were soon talking together as if they had always known each other. They told funny stories, they joked and laughed, and Mollie soon forgot her fear of the fast moving train. "It was just like a party," she told Norah.
At every station, the guard unlocked the door and let out those who were going no farther. Others then got in, so the company was changing all the time.
The compartment in which Mollie rode was a third-class one, and the floor and seats were quite bare. But these things did not trouble the little girl. Her parents could not afford to buy tickets to go first or second-class. They were glad enough to be able to go at all.