d there, why, there was her aunt Ann and uncle Tom
outside on the platform, standing at another car window farther down,
talking and laughing in the liveliest manner with some friends they had
met. Uncle Tom didn't seem in the least haste now, and ever so many
minutes ago he had said to her, "Well, good-by, Ally!" and rushed off as
if there wasn't another minute to spare,--not another minute; and here
was a gentleman in front of her, saying to a friend of his at that very
instant, "There's plenty of time; it's ten minutes before the cars
start;" and then she heard a lady say to another lady, "There's no need
of my leaving you yet; we've got oceans of time;" and all about her,
Ally now noticed various groups of friends and relations lingering
lovingly together until the last moment; and noting all this, a bitter
little look came into Miss Ally's face, and a bitter little thought came
into her heart,--a thought that said tauntingly, "There, this shows you,
Ally Fleming, what kind of relations you've got; this shows you how much
they care for you!"

And by and by, as the cars started up and sped along, this bitter little
thought also sped along, carrying in its wake all the bitter little
thoughts of yesterday and to-day. Ally was quite accustomed to
travelling by herself on this trip to and from New York. It was a
perfectly simple thing to sit in the car-seat where she had been placed
by one uncle, until at the end of the trip she was met by the other
uncle, and taken charge of,--a perfectly simple, easy matter, and Ally
had heretofore quite enjoyed it; but now, looking about her, and seeing
the groups of other people's relations going home to Thanksgiving, she
began to think it was a very lonesome thing to be travelling all alone
by herself; and just as this occurred to her, what should happen but
that one of these groups should turn inquisitively to her and ask, "Are
you travelling all by yourself, little girl?" and when Ally had
answered, "Yes," this inquisitive person commented upon her being such a
little girl to travel all by herself; and then, when Ally told her
rather proudly that she was ten years old, the inquisitive person had
said, "Well, I don't know what _my_ little ten-year-old girl would think
to be sent off to travel all alone. I shall tell her when I get home
what a brave little girl I met."

Ally thought all this was said out of pity and wonder, and that the lady
thought her very much neglected and forl