The train started again, all the other passengers watching the queer
children who were making such a confusion.

"Oh, see the cow!" cried a tall boy. "It's the last cow you'll see for a
year, fellows, so take a good look at her," he added as the train passed
along a field.

"No more good times for a long while," sighed a boy who had a seat near
Freddie and Flossie. "I wish I could live in the country always."

Flossie and Freddie looked at him. His clothes were patched here and
there, but they were clean. And his face and hands were clean, which
could not be said of all the other children, though some of them showed
that they had tried to make themselves neat.

"The country is the best place," he said, and he looked at the two
smaller Bobbsey twins as though he would like to speak to them. "I'm
going to be a farmer when I grow up," he went on, after a pause.

"He--he's a nice boy," whispered Flossie to her brother. "I'm going to
speak to him. We can talk about the country."

"Wait a minute," advised Freddie. "Maybe mother wouldn't want us to talk
to strangers."

Flossie looked back to where her father and mother were sitting. Mrs.
Bobbsey was speaking to one of the ladies who had come in the car with
the noisy children.

"Are you taking part of an orphan asylum on an outing?" Flossie heard