"He stopped at a wood shed on the way, to buy a piece of sponge-cake," replied Dr. White, shaking hands with Uncle Ben, as Freddy tucked Flaxie into the sleigh.
[CHAPTER VI.]
A NEW FRIEND.
Preston lingered at the wood-shed and about the tiny station of Bremen all that morning and most of the afternoon. It was a very solitary place, and he had ample time for reflection.
"Well, this is one way to take care of your little sister! Anybody'd think I was five years old! I can't stand it to be such a fool! Oh ho! I thought 'twas great fun, didn't I, to make her give up her money and tickets? I wanted to 'take her down,' but now I'm taken down myself, and how do I like it?"
To judge by his clouded face and the stamping he made with his heels, he did not like it at all. "Poor little Flaxie, I know she's rushing round that car and crying! What will she do with herself? She won't get off anywhere? Oh, no, Flaxie isn't such a goose as to get off a car unless there's some sense in it! There's only one goose in the family, and that's Preston Gray. No, she won't get off. And let's see, the conductor will remember her, on account of that cracker. He'll know she did have a ticket, so of course he'll let her go free. She'll do well enough. She'll make friends on the cars; she's always making friends, she's so pretty and sweet."
In this way, by praising his sister and scolding himself, Preston tried to find a little consolation as he strode up and down the narrow sleigh-track—which the people of Bremen called a road. What he ought to do he could not decide.
After a while a man came along the road, dragging a pail of flour on a sled. "Do you know how far it is to Hilltop, sir?" asked Preston, feeling himself very young and small, for the man stared at him as if he considered him a mere baby, and thought of taking him up pickaback.
"Hilltop, did you ask? Why, where are your folks? Where did you come from, travelling round here alone?"