This did not please Ruby at all. She had not noticed that he had done this same thing to every one else's ticket, and she exclaimed,—
"Please don't do that, you will spoil those tickets, and they are all we have got."
The conductor smiled, and so did several other people who had heard Ruby's speech.
"I have n't spoiled the tickets, sissy," the conductor said good-naturedly.
When he went on to the next seat Ruby showed the tickets to her Aunt Emma.
"He says he did not spoil them, but I just think he did," she whispered. "I think it spoils tickets to have a hole made in them, don't you, Aunt Emma? Now spose they are not good any more, how shall we get to school? Will they put us off the cars?"
"The tickets will be all right, Ruby," Aunt Emma answered smilingly. "Now put them back in my pocket-book again, so that they will not get lost, and by and by another conductor will get on the train and will want to see them, and then you shall show them to him."
"Will he make another hole in them?" asked Ruby, 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?"