born
just the same month. And I won't be cross if they _don't_ give me enough
to eat; and I'll take a whole bushel o' pills!"

"Let her go," laughed papa; "the bushel of pills settles it."

Flaxie was six and a half years old, and could have gone to Hilltop
alone--almost; but as Captain Jones happened to be travelling that way,
Dr. Papa thought he would pretend to put her in his charge.

"Did you ever go in the cars alone, Ninny, with your own valise, and a
check in your pocket?" asked Flaxie in glee, as she rode up to the
station; "and oh, a umbrella, too!"

"No, I never did--at your age," replied Ninny, who was now a young lady
of twelve.

"You see Uncle Ben will be there to meet me when we get to Hilltop,"
said Miss Frizzle, fluttering her darling umbrella against the captain's
spectacles; "and won't he laugh when he sees me coming all alone, with a
check in my pocket?"

"Good-bye, curly-head; take care of that umbrella," said her father,
kissing her pea-green cheek, and hurrying out of the car as the bell
rang.

"Let's see, where is Hilltop, and how will you know when you get there?"
asked the captain, before Flaxie had time to cry.

"Oh, it's where Uncle Ben lives and Aunt Charlotte," replied the little
traveller, who had a vague idea that the house was in the middle of a
snow-drift, with roses in the front yard and strawberries behind it.
"Their name is Allen."

"Well, I'm glad you've told me all the particulars," said the captain
gravely. "And I shall be easy, for we can't miss it."

Flaxie smiled and looked at her check. She felt the whole care of the
journey, but it didn't trouble her at all, for the captain would tell
her when to stop. She "'membered" all about Hilltop just as well as
could be, but she didn't _'xactly_ know where it was!

It was a pleasant ride on that beautiful spring day, and the captain
would have been very agreeable, only he seemed to have a perfect horror
of "pinnuts," the very things Flaxie had dreamed about and expected to
eat all the way. He shook his head at the peanut boys, and told her he
"wished they would keep away with their trash!" If he had only gone into
a smoking-car and left her, she might have bought some, for she had her
red portemonnaie with her; but then he never thought of leaving her, for
he really had no idea she was travelling alone.

She had said Uncle Ben would laugh at meeting her; and so he did. He
threw up both hands and cried, "Bless me! what's a