Johnny Ludlow, Sixth Series

"We could never be ready," said the Mater, looking the image of perplexity. "To-morrow's Friday. Besides, there would be no time to write to Mary."

"Write to her!" cried the Squire, turning sharply on his heel as he paced the room in his nankeen morning-coat. "And who do you suppose is going to write to her? Why, it would cause her to make all sorts of preparation, put her to no end of trouble. A pretty conjurer you'd make! We will take her by surprise: that's what we will do."

"But if, when we got there, we should find her rooms are let, sir?" said I, the possibility striking me.

"Then we'll go into others, Johnny. A spell at the seaside will be a change for us all."

This conversation, and the Squire's planning-out, arose through a letter we had just received from Mary Blair--poor Blair's widow, if you have not forgotten him, who went to his end through that Gazette of Jerry's. After a few ups and downs, trying at this thing for a living, trying at that, Mrs. Blair had now settled in a house at the seaside, and opened a day-school. She hoped to get on in it in time, she wrote, especially if she could be so fortunate as to let her drawing-room to visitors. The Squire, always impulsive and good-hearted, at once cried out that we would go and take it.

"It will be doing her a good turn, you see," he ran on; "and when we leave I dare say she'll find other people ready to go in. Let's see"--picking up the letter to refer to the address--"No. 6, Seaboard Terrace, Montpellier-by-Sea. Whereabouts is Montpellier-by-Sea?"

"Never heard of it in my life," cried Tod. "Don't believe there is such a place."

"Be quiet, Joe. I fancy it lies somewhere towards Saltwater."

Tod flung back his head. "Saltwater! A nice common place that is!"

"Hold your tongue, sir. Johnny, fetch me the railway guide."

Upon looking at the guide, it was found there; "Montpellier-by-Sea;" the last station before getting to Saltwater. As to Saltwater, it might be common, as Tod said; for it was crowded with all sorts of people, but it was lively and healthy.

Not on the next day, Friday, for it was impossible to get ready in such a heap of a hurry, but on the following Tuesday we started. Tod had left on the Saturday for Gloucestershire. His own mother's relatives lived there, and they were always inviting him.

"Montpellier-by-Sea?" cried the railway clerk in a doubting tone as we were getting the tickets. "Let's see? Where is that?"

Of course that set the Squire exploding. What right had clerks to pretend to issue tickets unless they knew their business? The clerk in question coolly ran his finger down the railway list he had turned to, and then gave us the tickets.

"It is a station not much frequented, you see," he civilly observed. "Travellers mostly go on to Saltwater."

But for the train being due, and our having to make a rush for the platform, the Squire would have waited to give the young man a piece of his mind. "Saltwater, indeed!" said he. "I wonder the fellow does not issue his edict as to where people shall go and where they shan't go."

We arrived in due time at our destination. It was written up as large as life on a white board, "Montpellier-by-Sea." A small roadside station, open to the country around; no signs of sea or of houses to be seen; a broad rural district, apparently given over entirely to agriculture. On went the whistling train, leaving the group of us standing by our luggage on the platform. The Squire was staring about him doubtfully.

"Can you tell me where Seaboard Terrace is?"