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me off my seat. Why do you make a face, papa?"

There is no accounting for tastes, my dear,' said Mr. Selby.

But when they arrived at the station, Harry thought it more jolly still; there was such a bustle and noise, and everybody was running backwards and forwards; and if he liked being knocked about, he got plenty of that by being always in everybody's way. Both boys were quite red in the face by the time their train drew up, and they jumped into the carriage at once.

'Had not you better walk up and down with me?' asked their papa; 'the train will not start for ten minutes, and you will have more than enough of it before the day is over.'

But Harry and Hugh thought it quite impossible that they could ever have enough of a railway carriage, so they left Mr. Selby to walk up and down by himself, while they sat in each seat of the carriage in turn, to feel which was the softest.

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'I should like to live all my life in a railway carriage,' said Harry; 'this side should be my drawing-room, and opposite my bedroom. would keep provisions under one of the seats.' 'How would you cook your dinner?' asked Hugh.

'I should never have dinner,' said Harry; 'nothing but tarts. I should buy them at the refreshment room, and keep a store in the carriage.'

'I wonder what sort of boys Guy and Walter are?' said Hugh in another minute.

Muffs, I daresay,' said Harry; 'you know they have never been to London, and they go to some country school. I expect I shan't think much of them.' And Harry stretched his little legs out, and thought they looked very big.

Just then Mr. Selby opened the carriage door and got in, and after him a lady and gentleman, and in another minute the train moved on. At first there was plenty of amusement for the boys in looking from the windows at the tops of the houses, and the different things they passed, and Harry was still of opinion that he could live all his life in a railway carriage.

'What a jolly noise!' said he, as the engine gave a shriek,

The lady looked up at him and laughed.

'And what a jolly smell!' said the gentleman, as a horrid smell of hot grease came in at the window.

Then the lady took a bag of buns out of her travelling bag and offered one to Harry, saying, 'Take one, my dear.'

Harry would have liked one very much indeed, but he did not like being called by a stranger 'My dear,' as if he was a very little boy, so he made a small bow, and answered,-

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Thanks, I have only just had breakfast.'

His papa looked at him with surprise, but said nothing, and Harry lost the plum bun by his own nonsense; for the lady ate them herself, and I daresay she thought him a little prig.

It was not very long though before even Harry found that he would not care to travel for ever. He got sleepy, but he could not go to sleep with comfort. He had nothing to do, for he did not care about reading newspapers. At one of the stations his papa got out and bought a lot of buns and biscuits; but we all know it does not take long to eat buns.

At every station Hugh and Harry asked if it was Middleton, where Uncle Tom lived; but it seemed as if Middleton would no more come than the holidays would until that day, and when at last they did arrive at Middleton, they were both half asleep, and did not in the least expect it. The train stopped, and they jumped out, and there was Uncle Tom standing on the platform waiting for them. The boys had not seen their uncle for two years, but they knew him directly

by his great brown beard, and they were very glad to see him again, only that he made both Hugh and Harry feel so dreadfully ashamed by kissing them on the platform. So with very red faces they followed their uncle to where an open carriage stood. He packed them both in at the back, and he and their papa got in front, leaving the luggage to come on with a donkey cart; and their Uncle Tom laughed out loud as he shook hands again with Mr. Selby, and turned round to the boys and told them to hold on; and as soon as the horse's head was let go, he darted off at such a rate that Hugh and Harry thought he was running away, and they clung with all their hands to the sides of the seat; and even then they were jumped about and bumped forward, and their caps would hardly keep upon their heads. Everything was so new to the boys, that they were every moment screaming to one another to look. Each house they saw they felt sure must be Uncle Tom's, and sometimes they thought that a barn would turn out to be 'Greenway Cottage,' which was the name of Uncle Tom's house; but when they did come to it, they talked still more, for it was much too large to be called a cottage at all; and as they came to the drive gate, they had thought the lodge must be the house.

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CHAPTER III.

UNCLE TOM'S HOUSE.

NCLE Tom's house was a pretty place,
standing in the midst of a number of
trees, and everything round about it
looked green.
There were four chil-

dren capering on the doorsteps as the dogcart drove up to the door. Two boys and two girls, that is, most people would have called them children, but Hugh and Harry thought that one of them was almost a man-which meant that he was a little bigger than themselves.

This eldest one came forward as Uncle Tom drew up, and said

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'Well, father.'

'Well, my son,' said Uncle Tom, 'here is your Uncle George, and here are your cousins. This is Guy,' said he, turning to Hugh and Harry, and then Guy held out his hand, and said to the boys,

I am very glad to see you. Alice, these are

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