THE COMING STORM
For several minutes the boys were the least bit quiet and subdued. There
is always something sobering in going away from home and leaving
relatives and friends behind, especially when the parting is going to
last for many months, and the warm-hearted farewells of the group at the
station were still ringing in the boy's ears.
But it is not in boy nature to remain quiet long, and their
irrepressible spirits soon asserted themselves and caused the young
travelers to bubble over with fun and merriment.
Besides, Pee Wee and Mouser had said good-bye to their parents the day
before in their own homes, and had been stopping over night with their
school chums in Clinton. Their depression was but for the moment and was
over the thought of leaving behind so much fun and good will as they had
found at their chums' home town, and they helped Bobby and Fred to
forget their feeling of homesickness.
There were not many other passengers on the train that morning, so that
the boys had plenty of room and could give vent to their feelings
without causing annoyance to others. They snatched each other's caps and
threw them in the aisles or under the seats, indulged in good-natured
scuffling, sang bits of the Rockledge songs and cut up "high jinks"
generally.
Fred and Mouser were seized by a longing for a drink of water at the
same moment, and they had a race to see who would get to the cooler
first. Fred won and got first drink while Mouser waited for his turn.
But Mouser got even by knocking Fred's elbow so that half the water was
spilled over the front of his coat.
"Quit, I tell you, Mouser," remonstrated Fred, half choking from the
effort to drink and talk at the same time.
But Mouser kept on, until suddenly Fred saw a chance to get back at him.
"What does it say there?" he asked, pointing to some words engraved on
the lower part of the cooler. "I can't quite make the letters out from
here."
Mouser innocently bent over, and Fred, taking advantage of his stooping
position, tipped his glass and sent a stream of water down his victim's
neck.
There was a startled howl from Mouser as the cold water trickled down
his spine. He straightened up with a jerk and chased Fred down the
aisle, while Bobby and Pee Wee went into whoops of laughter at his
discomfiture.
"That's no way to drink water, Mouser," chaffed Bobby as soon as he
could speak. "You want to use your mouth instead of taking in through
the pores."
"Oh, dry up," ejaculated Mouser, making frantic efforts to stuff his
handkerchief down his back.
"We're dry enough already," chuckled Pee Wee. "Seems to me it's you that
needs drying up."
"You will jog my elbow, eh?" jeered Fred, who was delighted at the
success of his stratagem.
"My turn will come," grunted Mouser. "It's a long worm that has no
turning," he added, getting mixed up in his proverbs.
Again the boys shouted and Mouser himself, although he tried to keep up
his dignity, ended by joining in the merriment.
In the scramble for seats when they had first boarded the train, Bobby
and Fred had had the luck to get the seat that faced forward. Mouser and
Pee Wee had to ride backward and naturally after a while they objected.
"You fellows have all the best of it," grumbled Pee Wee.
"That's all right," retorted Fred. "That's as it should be. Nothing's
too good for Bobby and me. The best people ought to have the best of
everything."
"Sure thing," Bobby backed him up. "The common people ought to be
satisfied with what they can get. You fellows ought to be glad that we
let you travel with us at all."
"Those fellows just hate themselves, don't they?" Mouser appealed to his
seat mate.
"Aren't they the modest little flowers?" agreed Pee Wee.
"What do you say to rushing them and firing them out?" suggested Mouser.
"Oh, don't do that," cried Fred in mock alarm. "Pee Wee might fall on
one of us, and then there'd be nothing left but a grease spot."
"Might as well have a ton of brick on top of you," confirmed Bobby.
"I'll tell you what," grinned Pee Wee. "We'll draw straws for it and the
fellows that get the two longest straws get the best seats."
"That would be all right and I'd be glad to do it," said Fred with an
air of candor. "Only there aren't any straws handy. So we'll have to let
things stay as they are."
"You don't get out of it that way, you old fox," cried Mouser. "Here's
an old letter and we'll make strips of paper take the place of the
straws."
"All right," agreed Fred, driven into the open. "Give me the letter and
I'll make the strips and you fellows can draw."
"Will you play fair?" asked Mouser suspiciously.
Fred put on an air of offended virtue.
"Do you think I'm a crook?" he asked.
"I don't know," retorted Mouser in a most unflattering way. "A fellow
that will pour water down my back when I'm trying to do him a favor will
do anything."
Fred looked at him sadly as though lamenting his lack of faith, but
proceeded briskly to tear the strips. The boys drew and Bobby had the
luck to retain his seat, but Fred had to exchange with Mouser.
"It's a shame to have to sit with Pee Wee," said Fred as he squeezed in
beside the fat boy. "He takes up two-thirds of the seat."
"The conductor ought to charge him double fare," grinned Mouser.
Pee Wee only smiled lazily.
"Look at him," jeered Bobby. "He looks just like the cat that's
swallowed the canary."
"It would take more than that to make Pee Wee happy," put in Fred. "A
canary would be a mighty slim meal for him."
"You'd think so if you'd seen how he piled into the buckwheat cakes this
morning," chuckled Bobby. "Honestly, fellows, I thought that Meena would
have heart failure trying to cook them fast enough."
"I noticed that you did your part all right," laughed Pee Wee. "I had
all I could do to get my share of the maple syrup."
"Buckwheats and maple syrup!" groaned Mouser. "Say, fellows! stop
talking about them or you'll make me so hungry I'll have to bite the
woodwork."
"We can do better than that," said Fred. "Here comes the train boy.
Let's get some candy and peanuts."
The boys bought lavishly and munched away contentedly.
"Look at the way the snow's coming down!" exclaimed Fred, gazing out of
the window.
"It is for a fact," agreed Bobby.
"Looks as though it had settled in for a regular storm," commented
Mouser.
"Maybe it will be a blizzard," suggested Pee Wee.
As a matter of fact, it appeared to be that already. The snow was
falling heavily and shutting out the view so that the boys could
scarcely see the telegraph poles at the side of the track. A fierce wind
was blowing, and in many places the fence rails were almost covered
where the snow had drifted.
"Hope we won't have any trouble in getting to Rockledge," remarked Fred
rather apprehensively.
"Not so bad as that I guess," said Bobby. "There's one place though, a
little further on, where the track runs through a gulch and that may be
pretty well filled up if the storm keeps on."
"I wonder if there's anything to eat on the train if we should get
snowbound," ventured Pee Wee.
"Trust Pee Wee to think of his stomach the first thing," gibed Fred.
"There isn't any dining car on the train," said Mouser. "And we're still
a good way from the station where it usually stops for lunch."
"We're all right anyway as long as the candy and peanuts hold out,"
laughed Bobby.
"Yes," mourned Pee Wee, "but there isn't much nourishment in them when a
fellow's really hungry."
The storm continued without abatement, and the few passengers that got
on at the way stations looked like so many polar bears as they shook the
clinging flakes from their clothes and shoes.
"Oh well, what do we care," concluded Pee Wee, settling back in his
seat. "There's no use borrowing trouble. It always comes soon enough if
it comes at all."
"We ought to be used to snow by this time," remarked Mouser. "After what
we went through up in the Big Woods this doesn't seem anything at all."
"Listen to the north pole explorer," mocked Fred. "You'd think, to hear
him talk, that he'd been up with Cook or Peary."
"Well, I've got it all over those fellows in one way," maintained
Mouser. "I'll bet they never had a snowslide come down and cover the
shack they were living in."
"That was a close shave all right," said Bobby a little soberly, as he
thought of what had been almost a tragedy during their recent holiday at
Snowtop Camp. "I thought once we were never going to get out of that
scrape alive."
"It was almost as bad when we were chased by the bear," put in Fred. "We
did some good little running that day all right. I thought my breath
would never come back."
"And the running wouldn't have done us any good if it hadn't been for
good old Don," added Mouser. "How that old dog did stand up to the
bear."
"He got some fierce old digs from the bear's claws while he was doing
it," said Bobby.
"He got over them all right," affirmed Mouser. "I got a letter from my
uncle a couple of days ago, and he says that Don is as good as he ever
was."
The train for some time past had been going more and more slowly.
Suddenly it came to a halt, although there was no station in sight. It
backed up for perhaps three hundred feet, put on all steam and again
rushed forward only to come to an abrupt stop with a jerk that almost
threw the boys out of their seats.
They looked at each other in consternation.