The Story of Jessie | Page 5

maid, while he'd got a few spare minutes before the
train came in," he decided, and, with a sigh of relief, made his way into
the station. He was tired after his exciting, busy day, and glad to sit
down alone, to think over all that the day had brought them, and was
likely to bring them.

Mr. Simmons, the station-master, must have been tired too, though his
day had been neither busy nor exciting, for when at last he did appear,
he was stretching and yawning as though the nap he had been having in
his office had not been quite long enough for him.
When he saw Thomas his eye brightened, and he joined him at once,
for he dearly loved a gossip, and he had in his mind a long story that he
was impatient to pour out to somebody. The story was so long and so
interesting that the whistle of the fast-approaching train was heard long
before it was ended, and of his own story Thomas had not been able to
tell a word.
"Is that the London train?" he asked eagerly, starting to his feet.
"It is, sir. Are you going by it?"
"No--o, oh no," said Thomas. His face flushed and his hands shook as a
carriage door opened here and there and a passenger got out.
"Are 'ee expecting somebody?" asked the station-master, with just a
touch of impatience in his voice. He did not approve of this reserve in
Thomas, just after he had confided all that story to him too.
"Well, I hardly know," said Thomas slowly. "I am, and I ain't." A dull
sick feeling of bitter disappointment filling his heart as he saw that
beyond the two men who had sprung out at once, no one else was
appearing. "I was going to tell 'ee about it, only the train corned in.
I'm--I'm expecting my little granddaughter. She may come any day, by
any train, so far as we know, for they--her mother, at least, forgot to say
which."
The station-master, seeing that his presence was not required by the
new arrivals, stood ready to listen to Thomas's story. "Didn't tell you
when to expect her!" he exclaimed in surprise.
"No--o," said Thomas reluctantly. He shrank from talking about it, for
fear Mr. Simmons would ask questions he did not want, or was unable,
to answer. "She overlooked it, I reckon; and there hasn't been time to

write and get an answer, so I thought I'd just step up and see this train
in."
"Well, we may as well go the length of her and make sure," said Mr.
Simmons, "if the child is very young, she may be afraid to move, or
p'raps she doesn't know that this is where she ought to get out."
Fresh hope rose in Thomas's heart as they made their way along the
whole length of the train. The guard and the porter paused in their
gossip to turn and look at them, the engine-driver hanging lazily over
the side of his box watched them idly. Thomas, who was filled now
with fear that the engine would start off at a wild pace before they had
time to search the carriages, was somewhat relieved by the lazy look of
them all.
"Do you know if there was any little girl on board booked to
Springbrook?" Mr. Simmons asked the guard as they drew near him.
"Why, yes, I b'lieve there was," answered the man casually. "Got in at
St. Pancras. Hasn't she got out?"
"No."
Thomas hurried on more quickly. If she was booked for Springbrook,
and wasn't in the train, no one knew what might have happened to her.
She might have fallen out, or been stolen, or she might have got out at
the wrong station, and a terrible fear weighed on him as he hurried on.
"Hi! Mr. Dawson, come here! Is this of her, do you think?"
Thomas ran along the platform to the carriage where the station-master
stood, and both looked in. The compartment was empty, save for a little
figure, huddled up fast asleep in one corner. Thomas looked at her, and
his eyes grew misty. "Ye--es, that's of her," he answered. He hesitated,
not because he doubted, for, though the little face was flushed and
tear-stained, and the dark hair all rumpled about it, it might have been
his own little Lizzie again.

The men looked from the child to each other helplessly. "What had we
best do?" said the station-master, in a tone lowered so that it might not
waken the little sleeper. "If she opens her eyes and sees us all here
she'll be frightened."
"And if I touch her it'll wake her up with a start," said her grandfather
anxiously. But before they had settled