"I hope these young imps haven't been bothering you?" she said. "We were
in that car behind, but I was reading and they've been having a great
time romping all over the place. Oh, well! I suppose it's too much to
expect children to keep still on a train."

With a fond motherly caress she patted the two small flaming heads that
now snuggled boisterously against her on either side.

"Come now! Messrs. Bubble and Squeak!" she urged teasingly,
"march!--back to our car again!"

"Bubble and Squeak" seemed appropriate enough just then, to judge by the
many fractious objections immediately voiced by those two small
mutineers. They were loth to part with their latest acquaintance and
weren't above advertising that fact with unnecessary vehemence. Even the
puppy raised a snuffling whine.

"Boo-hoo!" wailed Jerry, "don't want to go in the other car--me an' Alice
want to stay here--the policeman's goin' to tell us all about
hoboes--he--"

"Oh, dear!" came a despairing little sigh, "whatever--"

Their eyes met and, at the droll perplexity he read in hers, George
laughed outright. An explosive frank boyish laugh. He rose with a
courteous gesture. "I'm afraid it's a case of 'if the mountain won't
come to Mahomet,'" he began, with gay sententiousness. "Won't you sit
down?"

The matron's kindly eyes appraised the bold, manly young face a moment,