wait for the Skowhegan stage.

At six o'clock sharp, with a "toot, toot, toot," of the driver's
horn, it rattled up to the gate, followed by a wagon for the
baggage. A few minutes later, with full hearts and tearful eyes,
the Elmers had bidden farewell to the little old house and grand
trees they might never see again, and were on their way down the
village street, their long journey fairly begun.





CHAPTER II.

THE SCHOONER "NANCY BELL."


It lacked a few minutes of nine o'clock when the stage in which
the Elmers had left Norton drew up beside the platform of the
railway station in Skowhegan. There was only time to purchase
tickets and check the baggage, and then Mark and Ruth stepped, for
the first time in their lives, on board a train of cars, and were
soon enjoying the novel sensation of being whirled along at what
seemed to them a tremendous rate of speed. To them the train-boy,
who came through the car with books, papers, apples, and oranges,
and wore a cap with a gilt band around it, seemed so much superior
to ordinary boys, that, had they not been going on such a
wonderful journey, they themselves would have envied him his life
of constant travel and excitement.