CHAPTER TWO.
HOW I WAS PRESENTED TO A BOY, AND OF A CERTAIN JOURNEY WE TOOK TOGETHER.
Very early next morning, when my hands scarcely pointed to five o'clock, the little household was astir.

There was a noise of hurried going and coming, and of trunks being carried down stairs, and for the first time I heard mingled with the sedate voices of my master and his wife, another voice, cheery and musical, which I at once guessed to belong to my future lord and master.
It was not till after this bustle had been going on for a good while that I was taken out of the drawer and put back into the pocket in which I had spent so many anxious hours the day before.

But here I was destined not to remain long, as will be seen.
Breakfast was a sad meal to that little family.

Even the gay, high- spirited boy was sobered in anticipation of the coming parting, and as to his parents, they dared not open their lips for fear of breaking down.
Then there was a rumbling of wheels in the street, and a banging about of boxes at the hall door; then a last long embrace between mother and son.

She no longer resisted her grief, and he for the time forgot everything but her he was leaving; then father and son stepped into the cab and drove away.
I felt the father's heart beating quicker and his chest heaving deeper as we proceeded.