“Oh, mamma, do lemme go to Aunt Charlotte’s, and go to school with Milly; she has such a dear teacher! And Milly’s my twin cousin, born just the same month. And I won’t be cross if they don’t give me enough to eat; and I’ll take a whole bushel o’ pills!”
“Let her go,” laughed papa; “the bushel of pills settles it.”
Flaxie was six and a half years old, and could have gone to Hilltop alone—almost; but as Captain Jones happened to be travelling that way, Dr. Papa thought he would pretend to put her in his charge.
“Did you ever go in the cars alone, Ninny, with your own valise, and a check in your pocket?” asked Flaxie in glee, as she rode up to the station; “and oh, a umbrella, too!”
“No, I never did—at your age,” replied Ninny, who was now a young lady of twelve.
“You see Uncle Ben will be there to meet me when we get to Hilltop,” said Miss Frizzle, fluttering her darling umbrella against the captain’s spectacles; “and won’t he laugh when he sees me coming all alone, with a check in my pocket?”
“Good-bye, curly-head; take care of that umbrella,” said her father, kissing her pea-green cheek, and hurrying out of the car as the bell rang.
“Let’s see, where is Hilltop, and how will you know when you get there?” asked the captain, before Flaxie had time to cry.
“Oh, it’s where Uncle Ben lives and Aunt Charlotte,” replied the little traveller, who had a vague idea that the house was in the middle of a snow-drift, with roses in the front yard and strawberries behind it. “Their name is Allen.”
“Well, I’m glad you’ve told me all the particulars,” said the captain gravely. “And I shall be easy, for we can’t miss it.”