"Had it all reasoned out fine, didn't I? And it would have turned out
so, only for one thing. The superintendent drove out in the country
somewhere from Lakeland, where he couldn't be reached by telegraph, and
he didn't get back to Winter Park for two days. Nobody else knew that I
was in this car. Wasn't that a fix for you?

"But I'm getting ahead of my story. I'd made up my mind to stick to the
car, if I had to ride all the way to New York. But of course my folks
and the superintendent would find me long before that. You see, I've
read in the papers how lost boys in New York are taken care of by the
police, and their friends telegraphed to. But I had a better plan than
that to try first, if it came to the worst; I'd go to a good hotel and
get them to telegraph, and my father would send on money for me. The
summer clothes I wore would be some proof of my coming from Florida. You
see, I had to think out every little point.

"Well, I'll not tire you with telling you how I rode on and on and on,
and how nobody came into the car after me. You know the road, of course.
We were in Savannah, and then we were in Charleston, and in Wilmington;
but nobody inquired for me. I may as well own up that I was pretty well
frightened when night came on again. I kept the door locked, of course,
and most all the shades down, for somehow I didn't care much about
looking at the scenery.

"But I had to break my rule about not going through the car, for by
night I was almost starved. There must be something to eat in the
kitchen, I thought; and I went and looked. Not a thing there! Closets
empty, and all scrubbed out clean, refrigerator open and empty, not so
much anywhere as a scrap of bread. I'd have eaten some, you know, if
there'd been any there--for what would a railroad president care for a
slice of bread when a fellow was hungry? That made me kind of desperate,
and I tried the dining-room--this room. Well, sir, in the closet under
that cabinet in the corner I found a big earthenware jar half full of
Boston water-crackers--those fearfully hard ones, you know. But didn't
they taste good, though! I felt kind of mean about eating them, but it
was all right-- Mr. Plant says it was, and he's sorry I didn't find a
porter-house steak there.

"Lying down that second night was the worst time of all. Did I cry, you
say? Yes, sir, I did cry. Mind you, I'm only fourteen, and a bigger boy
than that would have cried. Then sometimes I laughed, too