I'll go back, instead of going on. I'll go back by my friend Lamps's Up
X presently."

He went back to Mugby Junction, and, in point of fact, he established
himself at Mugby Junction. It was the convenient place to live in, for
brightening Phoebe's life. It was the convenient place to live in, for
having her taught music by Beatrice. It was the convenient place to live
in, for occasionally borrowing Polly. It was the convenient place to
live in, for being joined at will to all sorts of agreeable places and
persons. So, he became settled there, and, his house standing in an
elevated situation, it is noteworthy of him in conclusion, as Polly
herself might (not irreverently) have put it:

"There was an Old Barbox who lived on a hill,
And if he ain't gone, he lives there still."

Here follows the substance of what was seen, heard, or otherwise picked
up, by the gentleman for Nowhere, in his careful study of the Junction.




CHAPTER III--THE BOY AT MUGBY


I am the boy at Mugby. That's about what _I_ am.

You don't know what I mean? What a pity! But I think you do. I think
you must. Look here. I am the boy at what is called The Refreshment
Room at Mugby Junction, and what's proudest boast is, that it never yet