So, altogether, she had a pleasant, if tiresome, ride to New York City.
At one place the brakeman brought into the car for her some sandwiches and a glass of milk. He assured her, too, that the men in the baggage car had divided their lunches with Prince and had given him water.
She slept part of the time, and while she was awake there was so much going on that she could not feel very lonely. The excitement of travelling had taken that empty feeling out of her heart.
At last, the long stretches of streets at right angles with the tracks appeared—asphalt streets lined with tall apartment houses. This could be nothing but New York City. Her papa had told her long ago that there was no other city like it in the world.
She knew One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street and its elevated station. That was not where she had boarded the train going north, when Mr. Price had placed her in the conductor’s care, but it was nearer her old home—that she knew. So she told the brakeman she wanted to get out there, and he arranged to have Prince released.
The little girl alighted and got her dog without misadventure. She was down on the street level before the train continued on its journey downtown.
At the Grand Central Terminal the conductor was met with a telegram sent from Sunrise Cove by a certain frantic hardware dealer, and that telegram told him something about Carolyn May of which he had not thought to ask.
CHAPTER XXIX—THE HOMING OF CAROLYN MAY
It was some distance from the railroad station to the block on which Carolyn May Cameron had lived all her life until she had gone to stay with Uncle Joe Stagg. The child knew she could not take the car, for the conductor would not let Prince ride.
She started with the dog on his leash, for he was not muzzled. The bag became heavy very soon, but she staggered along with it uncomplainingly.