content to
gaze out of the carriage windows, pass a running commentary on the new
country, and leave their future entirely to their Guardian. Soon,
however, the busy little tongues and brains ceased to work, and ere long
were steeped in slumber.

At midnight the train stopped, and great was the sighing and groaning,
and earnest were the requests to be let alone, for a batch of the boys
had to be dropped at a town by the way. At last they were aroused, and
with their bags on their shoulders prepared to set off under a guide to
their various homes. Soon the sleepiness wore off, and, when the train
was about to start, the reality of the parting seemed to strike home,
and the final handshakings and good wishes were earnest and hearty.

Thus, little by little, the band grew less and less.

Montreal swallowed up a good many. While there the whole band went out
for a walk on the heights above the reservoir with their Guardian,
guided by a young Scotsman.

"That's a jolly-lookin' 'ouse, Tim," said Bob Frog to his friend.

The Scotsman overheard the remark.

"Yes," said he, "it is a nice house, and a good jolly man owns it. He
began life as a poor boy. And do you see that other villa--the white
one with the green veranda among the trees? That was built by a man who
came out from England just as you have done, only without anybody to
take care of him; God however cared for him, and now you see his house.
He began life without a penny, but he had three qualities which will
make a man of any boy, no matter what circumstances he may be placed in.
He was truthful, thorough, and trustworthy. Men knew that they might
believe what he said, be sure of the quality of what he did, and could
rely upon his promises. There was another thing much in his favour, he
was a total abstainer. Drink in this country ruins hundreds of men and
women, just as in England. Shun drink, boys, as you would a serpent."

"I wouldn't shun a drink o' water just now if I could get it," whispered
Bobby to his friend, "for I'm uncommon thirsty."

At this point the whole band were permitted to disperse in the woods,
where they went about climbing and skipping like wild squirrels, for
these novel sights, and scents, and circumstances were overwhelmingly
delightful after the dirt and smoke of London.

When pretty well breathed--our waifs were grown too hardy by that time
to be easily exhausted--the Guardian got them to sit round him and sing
that s