"Can you get him ready to go with me by the twelve-o'clock train?" asked Mr. Manning. "Twelve o'clock!" ejaculated Mrs. Bradford, startled. "Why, it's nine now." "Well, aunt, can't I change my clothes in three hours?" asked Ben impatiently. "But to go on such a journey! It seems so sudden." "I don't think there will be any trouble in getting ready," said Mr. Manning, to whom the journey to New York seemed like a mere trifle, though it was nearly six hundred miles away. "Of course," he continued, "I shall pay his expenses. And"--and here he hesitated a little, from motives of delicacy--"allow me to pay two weeks' board in advance. You may have occasion to use the money." "Thank you, sir," said Mrs. Bradford gratefully. It did, indeed, relieve her from anxious embarrassment, for her purse was very low; and if Ben were gone any length of time, she would have been in a dilemma. "I think we have settled all that is needful," said Mr. Manning, rising to go. "If anything else occurs to me, I will either tell Ben or write to you. Good morning, Mrs. Bradford." "Good morning, sir." Turning to Ben, Mr. Manning said: "Ben, let me see you at the hotel as early as half-past eleven." "I'll be on hand, sir," said Ben. "I'll get there earlier, if you say so." "Just as you like. When you come, call for me." "Yes, sir." "It doesn't seem as if you were going away, Ben," said Tony. "I can't hardly realize it myself, Tony." "It's a great responsibility, Benjamin," said his aunt, beginning to look serious. "Suppose the cars run off the track." "I guess they won't, Aunt Jane." "I was reading of an accident out West only yesterday." "I am not going out West, Aunt Jane. I guess I'll reach New York right side up with care." "What an expression, Benjamin!" Ben laughed. "Only boys' talk, aunty. It means all right." "Don't you go on the steamboat, too, Benjamin?" "I guess so." "The boiler may explode." "If everybody thought that, nobody would travel, Aunt Jane. It doesn't happen once in a thousand times." At last Ben got ready. He was very much excited, but his excitement was of a pleasurable kind. One his way to the hotel, he met James Watson. "Where ware you going, all dressed up, Ben?" "Going to New York," answered Ben proudly. "You're only foolin'!" "No, I'm not. I'm going to New York by the twelve-o'clock train." "What for?" asked James astonished. "To escort a lady home," answered Ben. "She wants an able-bodied escort, that's used to traveling." James was very much surprised, and also a little incredulous, but he was finally convinced that Benn was in earnest. "I wish I were in your shoes," he said enviously. "There's nothing I'd like better than going to New York. You're a lucky boy!" Ben quite agreed with him. Chapter XI In New York