Page:Burnett - Two Little Pilgrims' Progress A Story of the City Beautiful.djvu/206

186 And John Holt was getting almost as much out of it as they were. He wandered about alone no more; he did not feel as if he were only a ghost with nothing in common with the human beings passing by. In the interest and excitement of generalship and management, and the amusement of seeing this unspoiled freshness of his charges' delight in all things, the gloomy look faded out of his face, and he looked like a different man. Once they came upon two men who seemed to know him, and the first one who spoke to him glanced at the children in some surprise.

"Hello, John!" he said; "set up a family?"

"Just what I've done," answered John Holt. "Set up a family. A man's no right to be going round a place like this without one."

"How do you get on with it?" asked the other. "Find it pay?"

"Pay!" said John Holt, with a big laugh. "Great Scott! I should say so! It's worth twice the price of admission!"

"Glad of it," said his friend, giving him a curious look.

And, as he went away, Meg heard him say to his companion—

"It was time he found something that paid—John