of the mater. They do hang about!"

A small boy with his hat on one side got into the carriage, stepped on
Peter's feet without apologising, and then the two gentlemen sat down at
the other end of the carriage and exchanged experiences.

"What sort of hols.?"

"Oh, pretty rotten! Got nothing for Christmas at all except a measly knife
or two--governor played it awfully low down."

"I rather scored because my sister had a ripping writing case sent to her,
and I gave her a rotten old book in exchange, and she jolly well had to."

And so it continued. To Peter it was completely unintelligible. The boys
at old Parlow's had never talked like this. He was suddenly flung into a
foreign country. The dismay in his heart grew as he remembered that he was
going into this life entirely alone and without a friend in the world. He
felt that he would, had it been possible, gladly have exchanged this
dreadful plunge for a beating from his father.

At any rate, after that there were friends to whom one might go--after
this?...

As the train dragged slowly and painfully along the dreariness and the
loneliness increased. The dusk fell, and they stopped, as it seemed, every
other minute, and always Peter thought that it must be Salton and prepared
to get out. The two boys in his carriage paid no attention to him whatever,
and their voices continued incessantly, and always the little train jolted
along sleepily wandering through the dark country and carrying him to