e didn't mean it. _We_ often
travelled second, and even third, if there were a lot of us and we could
get a carriage to ourselves. But, after all, it was Margaret's own
affair, and as she was to be alone from the Junction to Hill Horton,
perhaps it was best.

'_I_ don't want you to travel second, I'm sure,' I said, 'if only
there's enough. I'd have brought some of my own, but unluckily I'm very
short just now.'

'I've--'began Peterkin, but Margaret interrupted him.

'As if I'd let you pay anything!' she said indignantly. 'I'd rather
travel third than _that_. You are only coming out of kindness to me.'

After all, there was enough, even for first-class, leaving a shilling or
so over. Hill Horton was not very far away.

A train was standing ready to start, for the station was a terminus. I
asked a guard standing about if it was the one for Hill Horton, and he
answered yes, but we must change at the Junction, which I knew already.

So we all got into a first-class carriage, and settled ourselves
comfortably, feeling safe at last.

'I wish we were going all the way with you,' said Peterkin, with a sigh
made up of satisfaction, as he wriggled his substantial little person
into the arm-chair first-class seat, and of regret.

'I'll be all right,' said Margaret, 'once I am in the Hill Horton
railway.'

For some things I wished too that we were going all the way with her,
but for others I couldn't help feeling that I should be very glad to be
safe home again and the adventure well over.

'By the day after to-morrow,' I thought, 'there will be no more reason
for worrying, if Margaret keeps her promise of writing to us.'

I had made her promise this, and given her an envelope with our address
on. For otherwise, you see, we should not have heard how she had got on,
as no one but the parrot knew that she had ever seen us or spoken to us.

Then the train moved slowly out of the station, and Margaret's eyes
sparkled with triumph. And we felt the infection of her high spirits.
After all, we were only children, and we laughed and joked about the
witch, and the fright her new nurse would be in, and how the parrot
would enjoy it all, of which we felt quite sure.

We were very merry all the way to the Junction. It was only about a
quarter-of-an-hour off, and just before we got there the guard looked at
our tickets.

'Change at the Junction,' he said, when he caught sight of the 'Hill
Horton,' on Margaret's.

'Of course,