"No. I left him."

"How long ago?"

"Just this afternoon."

The close questioning of the waitress was making Bob very uncomfortable,
and he determined to tell her the real reason he had left, especially
as she was so kind and seemed to know so much about traveling in the
West. Having reached this decision, he told, with many hesitations, the
story of his experiences.

With quick sympathy the girl listened, and, as he concluded, exclaimed
tenderly:

"You poor kid! I'm sure glad you happened to drop in here. I've got a
sister living out in Chicago, whose husband runs as far as Kansas City
on a freight train. I'll give you a note to her, and her man will give
you a lift, and probably he can arrange with some of the men he knows to
carry you west from Kansas City."

"That will be very kind of you," returned Bob. "It seems as though
strangers are kinder to me than people I've known all my life."

"That's often the way," exclaimed the girl, as she rose and went up to
the desk in the front of the restaurant, where she obtained some paper,
an envelope, and pen and ink, which she brought back to Bob's table.

It was evident from the slowness with which her self-imposed task
advanced that the girl was more ready with her kind-hearted sympathy