This expedient was successful.  Johnnie, who loved to “whittle” above all things, dried her tears, and ran for her shade hat; and by the time the tiny brown seeds were sprinkled into the brown earth of the borders, both the girls were themselves again.  Dr. Carr appeared from his retirement half an hour later.  A note had come for him meanwhile, but somehow no one had quite liked to knock at the door and deliver it.

Elsie handed it to him now, with a timid, anxious look, whose import seemed to strike him, for he laughed a little, and pinched her cheek as he read.

“I’ve been writing to Dr. Hope about the children,” he said; “that’s all.  Don’t wait dinner for me, chicks.  I’m off for the Corners to see a boy who’s had a fall, and I’ll get a bite there.  Order something good for tea, Elsie; and afterward we’ll have a game of cribbage if I’m not called out.  We must be as jolly as we can, or Clover will scold us when she comes back.”

Meanwhile the three travellers were faring through the first stage of their journey very comfortably.  The fresh air and change brightened Phil; he ate a good dinner, and afterward took quite a long nap on a sofa, Clover sitting by to keep him covered and see that he did not get cold.  Late in the evening they changed to the express train, and there again, Phil, after being tucked up behind the curtains of his section, went to sleep and passed a satisfactory night, so that he reached Chicago looking so much better than when they left Burnet that his father’s heart would have been lightened could he have seen him.

Mrs. Ashe came down to the station to meet them, together with Mr. Dayton,—­a kind, friendly man with a tired but particularly pleasant face.  All the necessary transfer of baggage, etc., was made easy, and they were carried off at once to the hotel where rooms had been secured.  There they were rapturously received by Amy, and introduced to Mrs. Dayton, a sweet, spirited little matron, with a face as kindly as her husband’s, but not so worn.  Mr. Dayton looked as if for years he had been bearing the whole weight of a railroad on his shoulders, as in one sense it may be said that he had.

“We have been here almost a whole day,” said Amy, who had taken possession, as a matter of course, of her old perch on Katy’s knee.  “Chicago is the biggest place you ever saw, Tanta; but it isn’t so pretty as Burnet.  And oh! don’t you think Car Forty-seven is nice,—­the one we are going out West in, you know?  And this morning Mr. Dayton took us to see it.  It’s the cunningest place that ever was.  There’s one dear little drawer in the wall that Mrs. Dayton says I may have to keep Mabel’s things in.  I never saw a drawer in a car before.  There’s a lovely little bedroom too, and such a nice washing-basin, and a kitchen, and all sorts of things.  I can hardly wait till I show them to you.  Don’t you think that travelling is the most delightful thing in the world, Miss Clover?”