and of the Iron Horse altogether,
allowed him to take the bit in his teeth and fairly run away.

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Note 1. Many readers may find it difficult to form an adequate
conception of such a vast number as 307 millions. It may help one to
some idea of it to know that, if a man were to devote himself to count
it, one by one,--sitting down after breakfast counting at the rate of
one every moment, and working without intermission for eight hours every
day, excepting Sundays,--he would not conclude his task until the
thirty-fifth year.

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Note 2. We would refer them particularly to Messrs. W. and R. Chambers'
comprehensive and popularly written work on "Railways, Steamer, and
Telegraphs;" Money's "Rambles on Railways," which bristles with figures
and swarms with anecdote; "Stokers and Pokers," by Sir Francis Head, a
capital and very full work, though somewhat old; W.B. Adams' "Roads and
Rails," and Bremrer's "Industries of Scotland."

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Note 3. We had intended to devote much larger space to this most
interesting line, but the nature of our book forbids it. We quit the
subject regretfully; referring the reader, who may desire to know more,
to an able notice of the Metropolitan Railway in "The Shops and
Companies of London," edited by Henry Mayhew.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

LITTLE GERTIE COMES OUT IN A NEW LIGHT, AND BOB RECEIVES GOOD NEWS.

Poor little earnest curly-haired Gertie had been so thoroughly reared in
the midst of crashing sounds and dire alarms without any mischance
resulting, that she had come to feel at last as if the idea of danger or
disaster were a mere fiction. It was therefore a new and terrible shock
which she received, when she saw her father carried to his cottage by
four railway porters and tenderly laid in his bed; and it went to her
heart with an unaccountable thrill when she heard her father's usually
loud hearty voice say, in soft, womanly tones, "Thank 'ee, lads; thank
'ee. I'll be all right soon, please God. Good-night and thank 'ee
kindly."

"Good-night--good-night, Jack," they replied in various tones of
cheeriness; for these hard-muscled men had soft hearts, and although
they entertained fears for their friend, they were anxious, by the
hearty tones of their voices, to keep u