ll, well, well, why couldn't you say so?
Hullo! Conductor! Stop the cars!"

"Can't do it," replied the conductor. "This train don't stop short of
Woburn watering station."

"Woburn watering station!" whimpered the old woman, wringing her
hands. "O, what shall I do?"

"Sit still; take it easy--no use crying for spilt milk; what can't be
cured must be endured. I'll look out sharp; you might have saved
yourself all this trouble."

Away went the cars, racketting and oscillating, while the obliging
young man was looking round for another recipient of his good
services.

"Ha!" he muttered to himself. "There's a poor young fellow quite
alone. Lovesick, perhaps; pale cheek--sunken eye--never told his love;
but let--Shakspeare--I'm his man! Must look out for the old woman.
Here we are, ma'am, fifteen miles to Lowell--out with you--look out
for the cars on the back track. Good by--pleasant trip!"

Ding dong, went the bell again.

"Hullo! here's her bundle! Catch, there--heads! All right--get on,
driver!"

And having tossed a bundle after the old woman, he resumed his seat.

"Confound it!" roared a fat man in a blue spencer. "You're treading on
my corns."

"Beg pardon," said the obliging young man. "Bad things,
corns,--'trifling sum of misery new added to the foot of your
account;' old author--name forgotten. Never mind--drive on!"

"But where's my bundle?" asked the fat man. "Conductor! Where's my
bundle? Brown paper--red string. Saw it here a moment since."

The conductor knew nothing about it. The obliging young man did. It
was the same he had thrown out after the old woman.

"You'll find it some where," he said, with a consolatory wink. "Can't
lose a brown paper bundle. I've tried--often--always turned up; little
boy sure to bring it. 'Here's your bundle, sir; ninepence, please.'
All right--go ahead!"

Here the obliging young man took his seat beside the pale-faced youth.

"Ill health, sir?"

"No, sir," replied the pale-faced youth, fidgeting.

"Mental malady--eh?"

The young man sighed.

"See it all. Don't say a word, man! Cupid, heart from heart, forced to
part. Flinty-hearted father?"

"No, sir."

"Flinty-hearted mother?"

"No, sir."

"Flinty-hearted aunt?"

The lovesick young man sighed, and nodded assent.

"Tell me the story. I'm a stranger--but my heart is here, sir."
Whereupon the obliging young man referred to a watch pocket in his
plaid vest, and nodded with a great deal of intellig