Page:The railway children (IA railwaychildren00nesb 1).pdf/164

 Mother says we ought not to. And besides, we do not want any things. Only to talk to you about a Prisoner and Captive. Your loving little friend, ""

She got the Station Master to give the letter to the old gentleman, and next day she asked Peter and Phyllis to come down to the station with her at the time when the train that brought the old gentleman from town would be passing through.

She explained her idea to them—and they approved thoroughly.

They had all washed their hands and faces, and brushed their hair, and were looking as tidy as they knew how. But Phyllis, always unlucky, had upset a jug of lemonade down the front of her dress. There was no time to change—and the wind happening to blow from the coal yard, her frock was soon powdered with gray, which stuck to the sticky lemonade stains and made her look, as Peter said, "like any little gutter child."

It was decided that she should keep behind the others as much as possible.

"Perhaps the old gentleman won't notice," said Bobbie. "The aged are often weak in the eye."

There was no sign of weakness, however, in the eyes, or in any other part of the old gentleman, as