"Now, keep quiet and don't get heated, mother," cautioned Jennie,
looking back at the little gray-haired woman standing all alone on the
side veranda.
"Find a good cool spot to smoke your pipe in, father," called Frank, as
an old man appeared in the doorway.
There followed a shout, a clatter, and a cloud of dust--then silence.
Fifteen minutes later, hand in hand, a little old man and a little old
woman walked down the white road together.
To most of the passengers on the trolley-car that day the trip was
merely a necessary means to an end; to the old couple on the front seat
it was something to be remembered and lived over all their lives. Even
at the Junction the spell of unreality was so potent that the man forgot
things so trivial as tickets, and marched into the car with head erect
and eyes fixed straight ahead.
It was after Hezekiah had taken out the roll of bills--all ones--to pay
the fares to the conductor that a young man in a tall hat sauntered down
the aisle and dropped into the seat in front.
"Going to Boston, I take it," said the young man genially.
"Yes, sir," replied Hezehiah, no less genially. "Ye guessed right the
first time."
Abigail lifted a cautious hand to her hair and her bonnet.
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