"What do you think? They were backing right down to this car, and in a minute they had it coupled to my train; and just as the coupling was made the superintendent opened the door and came out on the platform, and as soon as he saw me he told me to come over there.

"I was sure then that he was going to ride somewhere in this car, and maybe he might let me ride with him a little ways. Wasn't it the luckiest thing in the world, I thought, that I happened to be there just at the right minute? We both went inside, in the little office at the end where Mr. Plant is now; and the first thing the superintendent said, said he, 'I am going to take this car up the road, and if you like you can ride up to Winter Park with me.'

"Well, sir, it was so sudden I didn't know for a minute whether I stood on my feet or my head. But the train began to move off, so I saw it was really true.

"'Isn't Mr. Plant going to use it?' I asked him--for I was so excited I hardly knew what I said.

"'Mr. Plant sailed for Jamaica this morning,' he answered, 'and will not be back for two weeks. The car is going up to New York now to bring Mrs.

Plant and some of her friends down. It has just been thoroughly cleaned for her use, so I do not care to open it up much and let the dust in; but you can make yourself comfortable here in the office while I look over some papers. I am only going as far as Lakeland myself, about thirty miles up the road; but you can go on to Winter Park in the car if you'll be sure to slam the door when you get out. It locks with a spring lock.'

"Make myself comfortable! Well I should rather say I could. I was as proud as a peac.o.c.k. It was foolish, of course, but, you see, I'd never had a ride in a private car before. I was sorry none of my friends had seen me start off in it, and that none of them would be likely to see me get out, for the train was not due at Winter Park till after eight o'clock. It seemed just like being in a house, it went so smooth and firm; and when people looked in the windows at stations, I'd imagine they were wondering what nabob that boy was, to be travelling in such style. And then I'd think of having only fifty cents in my pocket, and I'd have to laugh.

"It seemed just no time at all before we got to Lakeland, where the superintendent left me. He told me to take a nap on the sofa if I got sleepy, for I still had a four hours' ride, and to be sure and slam the door when I got out. Then I had the grand car all to myself, and wasn't I just prouder than ever! I wanted to go all over it and look at all the handsome things, but I wouldn't do it, because that would be just like sneaking over anybody's house. I staid right in the office, and pretty soon it began to grow dark, for there was n.o.body to light the lamps in the car, and I began to grow sleepy. So I spread out a newspaper for my feet, and lay down on the sofa.

"Did you ever see anything as soft as these sofas? It was like floating in the air, and I imagined myself riding on that magic carpet in the _Arabian Nights_. But there was something lacking, as there always is. I was as hungry as a bear, for I'd eaten nothing since morning. Then I thought of the fifty cents in my pocket, and the buffet they always have in the sleepers and parlor cars in Florida, and how easy it would be to go into the next car and buy some supper. But didn't I fasten back the catch of the door carefully before I went out? You see, I'd have been only an ordinary pa.s.senger if the door had locked after me, for I couldn't have got back.

"The waiter in the parlor car looked at me a kind of queer when I ordered my supper. 'Do you belong in this car?' said he.

"'Oh no,' said I. 'I have a private car in the rear.' Well, sir, after that you'd have thought I was the President of the United States from the way he waited on me. My fifty cents didn't buy very much, but it was enough.

"In a few minutes I was back on my sofa in No. 100, with the door locked. It was almost dark, and getting chilly, but having a fine private car all to myself more than made up for that. Just think of it!

It was almost as though I owned the car. Even the conductor didn't come in, for they don't go into a railroad president's private car to ask for tickets.

"I took a soft rug off the floor and pulled it over me, and thought I might as well take a nap. It would be safe to sleep for an hour, or even two, and I was tired with my day's travel. Of course I was asleep in no time. My, how good it felt!--a private car all to myself, soft sofa to sleep on, n.o.body to bother me."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "WELL, SIR, IT WAS ENOUGH TO MAKE A BOY'S HAIR TURN GRAY."]

"Suddenly something woke me up. I didn't know where I was at first, but it came back to me in a minute, and I was awfully cold. A little scared, too, for if I had slept any longer I might have been carried past Winter Park, and a pretty thing that would have been. I jumped up and looked out, but it was too dark to see anything much. We were running very slow, and I thought by the way things looked we were just getting into a station. So I sat down by the window and watched, and, sure enough, we were just about to stop. When we did stop, my car stood right square in front of the bay-window of a station. And what do you think I saw? Well, sir, it was enough to make a boy's hair turn gray. There was a big sign on the front of the building, WAYCROSS; and the clock inside the window said 4.35.

"Then I knew I was in for it; for Waycross, you know, is in Georgia, about half-way between Jacksonville and Savannah, and nearly three hundred miles above Winter Park. Instead of taking a little nap, I had slept for eight or nine hours, and I was three hundred miles away from my friends, without a cent in my pocket. My first thought was to get out, but while I had my hand on the door-k.n.o.b I thought better of it.

What would become of me if I got out? I had no money to go home with--not even a cent to telegraph to my folks with. Go to the conductor, do you say? You see, we were on an entirely different railroad from the one we started on, and had a different conductor, of course. This one wouldn't know anything about me, and probably would not believe my story.

"It was a pretty tough place, wasn't it? Private car, soft sofa, fine rugs, great style, and not a cent of money. While I was trying to make up my mind what to do, the train started. But that was all right; for somehow I couldn't get it out of my head that the best thing I could do was to stick to the car. You see, I figured it this way: when I didn't come home at nine o'clock, they'd begin to worry about me. They'd telegraph to the superintendent, and he'd understand how it was, and telegraph along the line, and have me found and sent home.

"Had it all reasoned out fine, didn't I? And it would have turned out so, only for one thing. The superintendent drove out in the country somewhere from Lakeland, where he couldn't be reached by telegraph, and he didn't get back to Winter Park for two days. n.o.body else knew that I was in this car. Wasn't that a fix for you?

"But I'm getting ahead of my story. I'd made up my mind to stick to the car, if I had to ride all the way to New York. But of course my folks and the superintendent would find me long before that. You see, I've read in the papers how lost boys in New York are taken care of by the police, and their friends telegraphed to. But I had a better plan than that to try first, if it came to the worst; I'd go to a good hotel and get them to telegraph, and my father would send on money for me. The summer clothes I wore would be some proof of my coming from Florida. You see, I had to think out every little point.

"Well, I'll not tire you with telling you how I rode on and on and on, and how n.o.body came into the car after me. You know the road, of course.

We were in Savannah, and then we were in Charleston, and in Wilmington; but n.o.body inquired for me. I may as well own up that I was pretty well frightened when night came on again. I kept the door locked, of course, and most all the shades down, for somehow I didn't care much about looking at the scenery.

"But I had to break my rule about not going through the car, for by night I was almost starved. There must be something to eat in the kitchen, I thought; and I went and looked. Not a thing there! Closets empty, and all scrubbed out clean, refrigerator open and empty, not so much anywhere as a sc.r.a.p of bread. I'd have eaten some, you know, if there'd been any there--for what would a railroad president care for a slice of bread when a fellow was hungry? That made me kind of desperate, and I tried the dining-room--this room. Well, sir, in the closet under that cabinet in the corner I found a big earthenware jar half full of Boston water-crackers--those fearfully hard ones, you know. But didn't they taste good, though! I felt kind of mean about eating them, but it was all right-- Mr. Plant says it was, and he's sorry I didn't find a porter-house steak there.

"Lying down that second night was the worst time of all. Did I cry, you say? Yes, sir, I did cry. Mind you, I'm only fourteen, and a bigger boy than that would have cried. Then sometimes I laughed, too. When I began to wonder whether I was a nabob travelling in a private car, or a tramp looking for a supper, that made me laugh. It was frightfully dark, and of course I did not dare light a lamp. It was cold, too; but I managed that with more rugs. There were plenty of rugs. By that time I was nearly a thousand miles away from my friends, and n.o.body seemed to be making any inquiries about me. But I knew that was nonsense, for do you think my mother wouldn't hunt me? When I thought of how she must be worrying about me, it made me cry again, and I cried myself to sleep.

The next thing I knew somebody was shaking me by the shoulder.

"'Wake up, young man!' the somebody was saying. 'Are you Frank Howell?'

"'Yes, sir,' said I, as soon as I got my senses.

"It was a tall young gentleman, as I could see by the light through the window, and the train was standing still.

"'Then come along with me,' said he. 'It's half past five in the morning, and this is Washington. You've only about twelve minutes to eat your breakfast in.'

"Then I knew I'd been found, and do you know it almost took away my strength. We were in the railway restaurant, and I was eating like a starving man before I had a chance to ask any questions, and then it was the gentleman who did the asking.

"'Have you come far?' said he.

"'Come far!' said I; 'I was carried past Winter Park. Didn't you know?'

"'I didn't know anything about it,' said he. 'I'm just obeying orders. I got this telegram only about two hours ago.' And he laid on the table a telegram which read:

"'TO FRED ROBLIN, Washington.

"'Mrs. Plant desires you to find Frank Howell, a boy probably coming North in her car in Train 14. See that he has breakfast and anything else he wants, and send him on to New York. Telegraph Seminole Hotel as soon as found.

"'H. S. HAINES, Vice-President.'

"'That's all right, then,' said I. 'Somebody's found me; I don't know who it is.'

"'All right!' said he; 'I should say it was. You're the luckiest boy in the country if Mrs. Plant is looking after you. There goes the bell. Now is there anything more I can do for you?'

"I told him not a thing more, and he said he would telegraph to my father, and that of course somebody would meet me in New York. Well, sir, it was a different ride after that, though the car got colder all the time. I pulled up all the shades and made things look cheerful, and unlocked the door, for I wasn't afraid any longer of being put out. And somebody did meet me. It was a man in livery, and he had a warm overcoat for me, and took me across the ferry, and put me in a beautiful coach with two horses, and in a few minutes I was in one of the finest houses I ever saw in my life, and a beautiful lady was stroking my head.

"'Why, you poor child,' Mrs. Plant said (for the lady was Mrs. Plant), 'what a fright you must have had! But your troubles are over now, for I shall take you back with me to Florida to-morrow. I was so afraid you would be starving in the car, as it was all cleaned out.'

"I told her about the crackers I found, and that made her laugh. After a while I asked her how she had found me out, and why my folks had not hunted me up.

"'Hunted you up!' she repeated. 'Why, child, we had the whole line turned upside down looking for you. The whole trouble was that the superintendent did not get back to Winter Park till late last night, and no one else knew that you were in my car. But as soon as he returned he telegraphed the New York office what had happened, and they sent word to me. It was after midnight then, and Washington was the first place I could catch the car.'

"Say, did you ever see such a kind lady as Mrs. Plant? She said I was her guest, because it was her car had carried me off; and that night she took me to the opera, and the next day we started back for Florida. We didn't live on crackers on the way down, either, _I_ tell you; nor the car wasn't cold or dark. I didn't find out till after I got back that Mrs. Plant thought my folks would be so worried that she'd telegraphed to a dozen of the agents to find me, and had told them all 'the boy is to be treated as my guest, wherever found.' And you see how kind Mr.

Plant was about it after he got home. This is the second time he has had me out to ride with him. Oh, it's jolly, being carried away in a president's private car--after you're found.

"Some of the boys at the hotel say I was a chump not to tell the conductor after I found I was carried past, and have him send me home.

But was I? Well, I rather think not. They're jealous, that's all."

A NAUTICAL FIRE-BALLOON.

BY W. J. HENDERSON.

It was blowing fresh from the eastward and southward, and the _Alice Tree_, under two lower topsails, spanker, and a bit of head-sail, was roaring along on a taut bowline, and looking well up toward her course.

That was as nearly due east as a good compa.s.s, a cool hand at the wheel, and an honest desire to cross the fiftieth meridian in lat.i.tude 40 30'

could make it. All the way from Sandy Hook Light-ship the stanch ship had leaned to a soldier's wind till the mid-watch of this day, and even now, under shortened canvas and with weather clews a-tremble, she was making eight knots an hour on her great circle track. The wind boomed out of the arching, creamy hollows of the two topsails, and hummed through the tense shrouds and back-stays.