ing-room, Jimmy went to the farther
end, and sat down on a bench close to the fire. Then he tugged the
sandwiches out of his pocket, untied the string, and began to eat them.
He did not stop until the last was finished, and by that time he began
to feel remarkably comfortable and rather sleepy. He made up his mind
that he would not on any account close his eyes, but they felt so heavy
that they really would not keep open; his chin dropped on to his chest,
and in a few moments he was sound asleep.

Then for some time all the busy life of the great railway station went
on: trains arrived, stopped, and started again; other trains whistled as
they dashed past without stopping; porters hurried hither and thither
with piles of luggage, and still a small dark-haired boy sat on the
bench in the waiting-room, unconscious of all that was happening.

Presently Jimmy awoke. He opened his eyes and began to rub them,
thinking at first that the bell which he heard was rung to call the boys
at Miss Lawson's school. But when he looked around him, he soon
discovered that he was not in the school dormitory, and then as he
became more wide-awake he remembered where he really was and began to
fear that he had slept too long and missed his train. Starting up in a
hurry, Jimmy ran out to the platform, and there to his great joy he saw
a train standing exactly where he had left one. A good many people were
waiting by the doors, but Jimmy looked in vain for the two ladies and
the old gentleman.

'Take your seats!' cried a porter, 'just going on;' so that, afraid of
being left behind, Jimmy jumped into a carriage close at hand. It
happened to be empty, but he did not mind that, and he was only just in
time, for the next minute a whistle blew and the train began to move. It
had not long started, before he noticed that the afternoon had become
much darker; he did not possess a watch, but as far as he could tell it
must be very nearly tea-time. However, he supposed that it could not be
long now before he arrived at Chesterham, and he began to look forward
more eagerly than ever to seeing his father and mother on the platform.

The train went on, stopping at several stations, and at each one Jimmy
looked out at the window and tried to read the name on the lamps. But he
felt no fear about going too far, because he knew that the train stopped
altogether when it reached Chesterham. It seemed a long time reaching
there, however, much longer than he h