"Sure!" said the man; "I'll never forget that little trick; thank you, ma'am!" Mrs. Jervis smiled. "You're quite welcome," she said, as she proceeded to dilute the milk with water from the cooler, and to warm the mixture on the stove, using her own silver traveling-cup for the purpose. While she was doing this, she had put the baby on Ethel's lap, saying quietly, "You hold her a minute till I get the milk ready." Ethel half grudgingly took the feebly wailing baby; but when the milk was warmed and the hungry little creature quietly fell asleep in her arms, she showed no desire to give her up. Mrs. Jervis, having procured a pillow from the porter,--for this was a sleeping-car,--laid the sleeping infant on the seat opposite her own. Meanwhile, the idea she had been all this time seeking--the plan for giving Ethel something to think of besides herself--had come to her, and she now suggested it to her daughter, who had stopped crying, though she still looked very unhappy. "Ethel," she said, "did you notice those poor children back there?" "No," said Ethel indifferently. "Well," said her mother, "I wish you'd go and tell the mother that the baby is sleeping comfortably, and I'll look after her." Ethel was accustomed to mind, and though she looked as if she didn't fancy the errand, she rose and slowly walked through the car to the back seats where the strangers were seated, delivered her message, and returned. "They don't look very comfortable, do they?" said Mrs. Jervis. "No, indeed!" said Ethel with some interest; "that girl had a little, old shawl pinned on, and looked half frozen at that." "I don't suppose they have ever been really comfortable," went on Mrs. Jervis. "I should like to fix them all up warm and nice for once in their lives." Ethel did not reply, but she was thinking. "I wonder if _they_ were going anywhere for Christmas," she said slowly. "They look as if they did not know what Christmas is," answered her mother. "I don't believe they ever had one." "It would be fun to fix up a tree for them," said Ethel, who had enjoyed helping to arrange a Christmas celebration the preceding year in an orphan asylum; "but of course no one can do anything shut up in this old car!" "I'm not so sure about that," said Mrs. Jervis; "a good deal can be done by willing hands." "I don't see what!" said Ethel. "Well," said her mother, "you could at least make the girl a rag-doll like those you made for the orphans last winter." "What could I make it of?" asked Ethel somewhat scornfully. "I have an idea," said Mrs. Jervis. "I think I can get something from the porter."