"A RAILROAD SAVAGE."
It now occurred to little Flyaway, with a sudden pang, that she must
have come to the end of the world. "Yes, cerdily!" The world was full
of folks and houses,--this place was nothing but trees. The world had
horses and wagons in it,--this place hadn't. "O dee!"
Where was the hill gone, on the top of which stood that big house they
called heaven,--the house where Charlie lived and played in the
garden? Why, that hill had just walked off, and the house too! She
parted the bushes and peeped through. Nothing to be seen but trees.
Flyaway began to cry from sheer fright, as well as pain. "'Tis a
defful day! I can't _stay_ in this day!"
More trouble had come to her than she knew how to bear; but worst of
all was the cruel stab of the bumblebee. She pitied her aching "fum,"
and kissed it herself to make it feel better; but all in vain; "the
pain kept on and on;" the "fum" grew big as fast as the candy had
grown little.
"Somebody don't take 'are o' me," wailed she; "somebody gone off, lef'
me alone!"
She was dreadfully hungry. "When _was_ it be dinner time?" She would
not have been in the least surprised, but very much pleased, if a bird
had flown down with a plate of roast lamb in his bill, and set it on
the ground before her. Simple little Flyaway! Or if her far-away
mother had sprung out from behind a tree with a bed in her arms, the
tired baby would have jumped into the bed and asked no questions.
But nothing of the sort came to pass. Here she was, without any heaven
or any mother; and the great yellow sun was creeping fast down the
sky.
"I'm tired out and sleepy out," wailed the young traveller, the tears
rolling over the rims of her "spetty-curls,"--"all sleepy out; and I
can't get rested 'thout--my--muvver!"
She sat down and hid her head in her black dolly's bosom.
"Diny, you got some ears? We wasn't here by-fore!"
This was all the way she had of saying she was lost.
The sky suddenly grew dark; a shower was coming up.
"Where has the bwight sun gone?" said Flyaway, with a shudder.
She was answered by a peal of thunder,--wagon-wheels, she supposed.
"Here I is!" shouted she.
Some one had come for her. Perhaps it was Charlie, and they meant to
give her a ride up to heaven. A flash of light, and then another
crash. Flyaway understood it then. It was logs. People were rolling
logs up in the sky, on the blue floor. She had seen logs in a mill.
Such a noise!
Then she dropped fast asleep, and somebody came right down out of the
clouds and gave her a peach turnover as big as a dinner basket, or so
she thought. Just as she was about to cut it, she was awakened by the
rain dripping into her eyes. She started up, exclaiming, "If you pees
um, I want some cheese um."
But the turnover had gone! Then the feeling of desolation swept over
her again. She had come to the end of the world, and dinner, and
mother, and heaven had all gone off and left her.
"O, Diny," sobbed she, turning to her unfeeling dolly for sympathy.
"I's free years old, and you's one years old. Don't you want to go to
heaven, Diny, and sit in God's lap? What a great big lap he must
have!"
A gust of wind lifted the frizzles on Dinah's forehead, but that was
all.
"O dee, dee, dee! you don't hear nuffin 't all, Diny," said
Flyaway--the only sensible remark she had made that day. It was of no
use talking to Dinah; so she began to talk to herself.
"What you matter, Flywer Clifford?" said she, scowling to keep her
courage up. "What you matter?"
And after she had said that, she cried harder than ever, and crept
under the bushes, moaning like a wounded lamb.
"I'm defful wetter, but I'm colder'n I's wetter; makes me shivvle!"
After a while the clouds had poured out all the rain there was in
them, and left the sky as clear as it was before; but by that time the
sun had gone to bed, and the little birds too, sending out their good
nights from tree to tree. Then the new moon came, and peeped over the
shoulder of a hill at Flyaway. She sprang out from the bushes like a
rabbit.
"O, my shole!" cried she, clapping her hands, "the sun's camed again!
A little bit o' sun. I sawed it!"
[Illustration: LOST IN THE WOODS.]
Inspired with new courage, she and Dinah concluded to start for
home; that is to say, they turned round three or four times, and then
struck off into the woods.
* * * * *
Now you may be sure all this could not happen without causing great
alarm at grandpa Parlin's. When the dinner bell rang, everybody asked,
twice over, "Why, where is little Fly?" and Dotty Dimple answered, as
innocently as if it were none of her affairs,--
"Why, isn't she in the house? We s'posed she was. Jennie Vance and I
have just been out in the garden, under your little _crying willow_,
making a wreath. Thought she was in the barn, or somewhere."
"But you haven't been in the garden all the while?"
"No'm; once we went up in the Pines,--grandma, you said we might,--but
we haven't seen Fly,--why, we haven't seen her for the longest while!"
Grace had dropped her knife and fork and was looking pale.
"It was Susy and I that had the care of her, grandma; when you went
out to see the sick lady, you charged us, and we forgot all about it."
"Pretty works, I should think!" cried Horace, springing out of his
chair; "I wouldn't sell that baby for her weight in gold; but I reckon
_you_ would, Grace Clifford, and be glad of it, too."
Grandma held up a warning finger. "I declare," said aunt Louise, very
much agitated, "I never shall consent to have Maria go out of town
again, and leave Katie with us. If she will try to swim in the
watering-trough, she is just as likely to take a walk on the
ridgepole of the house."
Horace darted out of the room with a ghastly face, but came back
looking relieved. He had been up in the attic, and climbed through the
scuttle, without finding any human Fly on the roof, or on the dizzy
tops of the chimneys, either.
But where was the child? Had Ruth seen her? Had Abner?
No; the last that could be remembered, she had been playing by herself
in the green chamber, soaking Dinah's feet in a glass of water. The
"blue kitty," the only creature who had anything to tell, sat washing
her face on the kitchen hearth, and yawning sleepily. Fly's shaker was
gone from the "short nail," and aunt Louise discovered some bank-bills
in a wash-bowl,--"Fly's work, of course." But this was all they knew.
Grandpa searched the barn, Abner the fields, Ruth the cellar; aunt
Louise and Horace ran down to the river. In half an hour several of
the neighbors had joined in the search.
"I always thought there would be a last time," said poor Mrs. Dr.
Gray, putting on her black bonnet, and joining Grace and Susy. "That
child seems to me like a little spirit, or a fairy, and I never
thought she would live long. She and Charlie were too lovely for this
world."
"O, _don't_, Mrs. Gray," said Grace. "If you knew how often she'd been
lost, you would not say so! We always find her, after a while,
somewhere."
Horace, who had gone on in advance, now came running back, swinging
his boots in the air.
"A trail!" cried he. "I've found a trail! Who planted these boots in
the road, if it wasn't Fly Clifford?"
"Perhaps she has gone to aunt Martha's," said Mrs. Parlin, "or tried
to. Strange we did not think of that!"
But aunt Martha had not seen her, nor had any one else. Horace and
Abner went up to the Pines, but the forest beyond they never thought
of exploring; it did not seem probable that such a small child could
have strolled to such a distance as that.
Supper time came and went. There was a short thunder-shower. The
Parlins shuddered at every flash of lightning, and shivered at every
drop of rain; for where was delicate, lost little Fly?
Abner and Horace were out during the shower. Horace would have braved
hurricanes and avalanches in the cause of his dear little Topknot.
"There's one thing we haven't thought of," said Abner, shaking the
drops from his hat and looking up at the sky, which had cleared again;
"we haven't thought of the railroad surveyors! They are round the town
everywhere with their compasses and spy-glasses."
It was not a bad idea of Abner's. He and Horace went to the hotel
where the railroad men boarded. The engineer's face lighted at once.
"I wish I had known before there was a child missing," he said. "I saw
the figure of a little girl, through my glass, not an hour ago. It was
a long way beyond the Pines, and I wondered how such a baby happened
up there; but I had so much else to think of that it passed out of my
mind."
About eight o'clock, Flyaway was found in the woods, sound asleep,
under a hemlock tree, her faithful Dinah hugged close to her heart.
There was a shout from a dozen mouths. Horace's eyes overflowed. He
caught his beloved pet in his arms.
"O, little Topknot!" he cried. "Who's got you? Look up, look up,
little Brown-brimmer."
All Flyaway could do was to sob gently, and then curl her head down on
her brother's shoulder, saying, sleepily, "Cold, ou' doors stayin'."
"Why did our darling run away?"
"Didn't yun away; I's goin' up to heaven see Charlie," replied
Flyaway, suddenly remembering the object of her journey, and gazing
around at Abner, Dr. Gray, and the other people, with eyes full of
wonder. "Where's the toppest hill? I's goin' up, carry Charlie some
canny."
The people formed a line, and, as Prudy said, "processed" behind Katie
all the way to the village.
"Is we goin' to heaven?" said the child, still bewildered. "It yunned
away and away, and all off!"
"No, you blessed baby, you are not going to heaven just yet, if we can
help it," answered Dr. Gray, leaning over Horace's shoulder to kiss
the child.
Flyaway was too tired to ask any more questions. She let first one
person carry her, and then another, sometimes holding up her swollen
thumb, and murmuring, "'Orny 'ting me--tell my mamma." And after that
she was asleep again.
Dotty Dimple, Susy, and Prudy were pacing the piazza when the party
arrived, but poor grandma was on the sofa in the parlor, quite
overcome with anxiety and fatigue, and Miss Polly Whiting was
mournfully fanning her with a black feather fan. The sound of voices
roused Mrs. Parlin. "Safe! safe!" was the cry. Dotty Dimple rushed in,
shouting, "A railroad savage found her! a railroad savage found her!"
In another moment the runaway was in her grandmother's lap. All she
could say was, "'Orny 'ting me on my fum! 'Orny 'ting me on my fum!"
For this one little bite of a bee seemed greater to Flyaway Clifford
than all the dangers she had passed. If grandma would only kiss her
"fum," it was no matter about going to heaven, or even being
undressed.
But after she had had a bowl of bread and milk, and been nicely
bathed, she forgot her sufferings, and laughed in her sleep. She was
dreaming how Charlie came to the door of heaven and helped her up the
steps.