Dotty disdained the help of the driver, and stepped into the carriage as eagerly as Jack climbed the bean-stalk.

She flirted her clean dress against the wheel, but did not observe it.

She was as happy as Jack when he reached the giant's house; happier too, for she had mounted to a castle in the air; and everybody knows a castle in the air is gayer than all the gold houses that ever grew on the top of a stalk.

To the eye of the world she seemed to be sitting on a drab cushion, behind a gray horse; but no, she was really several thousand feet in the air, floating on a cloud.
Her father smiled as he stepped leisurely into the hack; and he could not forbear kissing the little face which sparkled with such anticipation.
"It is a real satisfaction," thought he, "to be able to make a child so happy." The group at the door looked after them wistfully.
"Be a good child," said Mrs.Parlin, waving her handkerchief, "and do just as papa tells you, my dear." "Remember the three hugs to Gracie, and six to Flyaway," cried Prudy; "and don't let anybody see my letter." Dotty threw kisses with such vigor that, if they had been anything else but air, somebody would have been hit.
The hack ride did not last long.

It was like the preface to a story-book; and Dotty did not think much about it after she had come to the story,--that is to say, to the cars.
Her father found a pleasant seat on the shady side, hung the basket in a rack, opened a window; and very soon the iron horse, which fed on fire, rushed, snorting and shrieking, away from the depot.