"I don't 'spect she is; we didn't have tea--only sometimes, and we
never had cake, never!"

"Well, p'raps mother and you and me will all come here together one
day," she said, trying to speak cheerfully, though she little
expected such a thing to happen.

"And granp too?" said Jessie eagerly.

"Oh yes, granp too, of course." But her grandmother noticed that she
never once expressed a wish that her father should join them.

When at last the meal was over, and Mrs. Dawson had paid the bill and
talked a little with the woman who had served them, they made their
way slowly into the street.

"I think," said Mrs. Dawson musingly, standing still and turning
things over in her mind, "I think we had better go home by train;
'tis a good step, a mile and a half, for you to walk, and for me,
too, with all these parcels; it isn't nearly so far to walk home from
the station." So two days following Jessie arrived at Springbrook
station, and when she got out of the train the station-master and the
porter both recognized her and smiled at her.

"Why, you've become quite a traveller, missie," said Mr. Simmons
jokingly; "supposing we had let you sleep on! where would you have
been by this time, I wonder?"

"I don't know," answered Jessie, looking quite alarmed.