ark, with
unpleasant black eyes that seemed to roll a great deal. Yet he was kind
to the babies and his wife seemed to like him. She wondered what kind of
a home they had, and what relation the young fellow with the shiny dark
curls bore to them. He seemed to take as much care of the babies as did
their father and mother.

The lights were flickering out in the villages now and gave a friendly
inhabited look to the houses. Sometimes when the train paused at
stations Betty could see people moving back and forth at what seemed to
be kitchen tables and little children bringing dishes out, all working
together. It looked pleasant and she wondered if it would be like that
where she was going. A big lump of loneliness was growing in her throat.
It was one thing to run away from something that you hated, but it was
another to jump into a new life where one neither knew nor was known.
Betty began to shrink inexpressibly from it all. Not that she wanted to
go back! Oh, no; far from it! But once when they passed a little white
cemetery with tall dark fir trees waving guardingly above the white
stones she looked out almost wistfully. If she were lying in one of
those beside her father and mother how safe and rested she would be. She
wouldn't have to worry any more. What was it like where father and
mother had gone? Was it a real place? Or was that just the end when one
died? Well, if she were sure it was all she would not care. She would be
willing to just go out and not be. But somehow that didn't seem to be
the commonly accepted belief. There was always a beyond in most people's
minds, and a fear of just what Betty didn't know. She was a good deal of
a heathen, though she did not know that either.

Then, just as she was floundering into a lot of theological mysteries of
her own discovery the nasal voice of the conductor called out:
"Tinsdale! Tinsdale!" and she hurried to her feet in something of a
panic, conscious of her short hair and queer clothes.

Down on the platform she stood a minute trying to get used to her feet,
they felt so numb and empty from long sitting. Her head swam just a
little, too, and the lights on the station and in the houses near by
seemed to dance around her weirdly. She had a feeling that she would
rather wait until the train was gone before she began to search for her
new home, and then when the wheels ground and began to turn and the
conductor shouted "All aboard!" and swung himself up the step as s