or I wasn't afraid any longer of being put out. And
somebody did meet me. It was a man in livery, and he had a warm overcoat
for me, and took me across the ferry, and put me in a beautiful coach
with two horses, and in a few minutes I was in one of the finest houses
I ever saw in my life, and a beautiful lady was stroking my head.

"'Why, you poor child,' Mrs. Plant said (for the lady was Mrs. Plant),
'what a fright you must have had! But your troubles are over now, for I
shall take you back with me to Florida to-morrow. I was so afraid you
would be starving in the car, as it was all cleaned out.'

"I told her about the crackers I found, and that made her laugh. After a
while I asked her how she had found me out, and why my folks had not
hunted me up.

"'Hunted you up!' she repeated. 'Why, child, we had the whole line
turned upside down looking for you. The whole trouble was that the
superintendent did not get back to Winter Park till late last night, and
no one else knew that you were in my car. But as soon as he returned he
telegraphed the New York office what had happened, and they sent word to
me. It was after midnight then, and Washington was the first place I
could catch the car.'

"Say, did you ever see such a kind lady as Mrs. Plant? She said I was
her guest, because it was her car had carried me off; and that night she
took me to the opera, and the next day we started back for Florida. We
didn't live on crackers on the way down, either, _I_ tell you; nor the
car wasn't cold or dark. I didn't find out till after I got back that
Mrs. Plant thought my folks would be so worried that she'd telegraphed
to a dozen of the agents to find me, and had told them all 'the boy is
to be treated as my guest, wherever found.' And you see how kind Mr.
Plant was about it after he got home. This is the second time he has had
me out to ride with him. Oh, it's jolly, being carried away in a
president's private car--after you're found.

"Some of the boys at the hotel say I was a chump not to tell the
conductor after I found I was carried past, and have him send me home.
But was I? Well, I rather think not. They're jealous, that's all."

A NAUTICAL FIRE-BALLOON.

BY W. J. HENDERSON.

It was blowing fresh from the eastward and southward, and the _Alice
Tree_, under two lower topsails, spanker, and a bit of head-sail, was
roaring along on a taut bowline, and looking well up toward her course.
That was as nearly due east