like Emmeline, if she knew anybody wanted a blue pump! Here we are,
deary! This is Placid Pond we're coming to! You see that sheet o' water,
don't you? Well, that's it!"

The Talentless One buttoned her jacket and clutched her little black
bag. Her thin cheeks bloomed suddenly with tiny red spots of excitement.
She seemed on the edge of an Adventure; and, to one who had stood behind
a counter nearly all her days, an Adventure began with a capital A.
The train slowed up and stood panting--in a hurry to go again.

"Oh, I wish you were going to get out here!" T.O. said, wistfully.

The little, old woman seemed like an old friend to her. She felt oddly
young and inexperienced. Then, remembering the girls left behind in the
B-Hive and their confidence in her, she threw up her small head and
hurried away valiantly.

"Good-by!" she called back, from the bit of platform outside.

"Good-by! Give my love to Emmeline!" nodded and beamed the little, old
face in the car window.

It was a tiny place. T.O. could see only the great, placid sheet of
water and the diminutive station at first. She accosted the only human
being in sight.

"Which way is the city--village, I mean?" she asked.

He was an old man and held a scooped palm behind his ear.