e decided, after a little while, and
she wondered why it was that when she looked out of the window, it
seemed as if everything was running past the train, instead of the
train seeming to be in motion. It was very funny, and Ruby almost
laughed when they passed a field full of cows, which shot by the window
as if they had been running with all their might, when really they had
been standing quite still, looking with soft, wondering eyes at the
noisy monster that shrieked and whistled as it rushed on its way,
drawing a long train of cars after it.
CHAPTER X.
MAKING FRIENDS.
By and by a man dressed in blue clothes with brass buttons came through
the car, stopping at each seat and looking at people's tickets.
"That is the conductor, and he wants to look at the tickets," said Aunt
Emma. "Would you like to give him the tickets, Ruby?"
Of course Ruby wanted to do this, and she changed places with Aunt
Emma, and sat at the end of the seat, waiting for the conductor to come.
She felt very grown-up and important as she handed the little pieces of
pasteboard to him, and wondered whether he would think that she was
taking her Aunt Emma on a journey because she had the tickets; but the
conductor rather disappointed her. He did not seem to be at all
surprised that a little girl should give him the tickets, but he took
them and after looking at them for a moment, punched a little hole in
them.
This did not please Ruby at all. She had not noticed that he had done
this same thing to every one else's ticket, and she exclaimed,--
"Please don't do that, you will spoil those tickets, and they are all
we have got."
The conductor smiled, and so did several other people who had heard
Ruby's speech.
"I have n't spoiled the tickets, sissy," the conductor said
good-naturedly.
When he went on to the next seat Ruby showed the tickets to her Aunt
Emma.
"He says he did not spoil them, but I just think he did," she
whispered. "I think it spoils tickets to have a hole made in them,
don't you, Aunt Emma? Now spose they are not good any more, how shall
we get to school? Will they put us off the cars?"
"The tickets will be all right, Ruby," Aunt Emma answered smilingly.
"Now put them back in my pocket-book again, so that they will not get
lost, and by and by another conductor will get on the train and will
want to see them, and then you shall show them to him."
"Will he make another hole in them?" asked Ruby,
|