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 mysterious "joke" of the railroad train. "It will make Philip feel like a new creature. But why didn't papa come with you? or Mr. Marcy?"

"Your father's been very ill since the report of your being drowned. He's not well over it yet, and Mr. Marcy is with him. Don't be frightened; the shock's all past, but he's not strong. So don't lose a moment, please. You can come back in a few hours for your things."

"But you don't want me to go—without Philip. You don't mean that we must start this minute, do you?" The boy looked up in timid surprise, though the brightness of his face, since the news, would have been a pleasure for any one to notice except a man who seemed as absorbed and hurried as was the bringer of these tidings. "I can't."

"O, nonsense! You mustn't stop for any thing now. Time is precious, and it's cruel in you to waste a second before you satisfy your father that you are really alive. He doubts it yet. You don't know how ill he has been. We'll just slip right out of this gate here to the buggy."

"But Philip—"