ON TO SKIDDYUNK
I didn't want him to ask us any more questions, so I said I guessed we'd
go and look for the town if he would tell us where we could find it. He
got kind of mad at that, because that was the town right there, and all
the while we didn't know it. Gee whiz, how could _we_ tell? He said some
day that town would be as big as Skiddyunk and that once upon a time New
York had only one store, too.
"It has one store three or four now," I said.
Then he told us that Skiddyunk was about one mile along the track and
that we'd see it as soon as we got around the bend. I guess Ridgeboro
was just kind of on the edge of Skiddyunk. Gee whiz, if the railroad was
going to give it a station, that station ought not to be a car. A
wheelbarrow would be good enough.
"I wish we had some money, I know that," Connie said, as we were
walking along the ties. "That's the only thing that's worrying _me_."
"Same here," I told him, "but we're going to have a lot of fun here,
believe me; I can see it coming."
"Keep your eyes peeled and see if you see a train coming," Westy said.
Can you beat that fellow? Oh, but he's a reckless boy--not.
"Careful Carl," I said.
"What do you do with all the money you spend?" Connie wanted to know.
"Oh, I save it," I told him; "ask me another one."
"Who do you think Eb Brewster is?" Pee-wee piped up.
"He's the man the town is named after," I said; "good night, there's
going to be some fun around this way. I'm glad I'm not the railroad."
"I bet those men will take that sign down," Wig said.
"I bet they'll put it up again, then," I told him.
"Are you going to tell them the station is for them?" Pee-wee asked me.
"A scout is truthful," I said; "why should I tell them that? I'm just
going to keep still and see what happens. I may decide to name the car
after Eb Brewster. I should worry. We can name it after anybody we want
to name it after, can't we? Jiminetty, I'm glad we're here; we dropped
in at the right place."
"One thing, I'm glad Monday's Columbus Day," Pee-wee said.
"Believe _me_" I told him, "Columbus never discovered anything like
this. I could kind of read in that man's face, the one with the
suspender----"
"He didn't have the suspender on his face," Pee-wee shouted.
"Take a demerit for that, and stay after school," I told him. "I could
kind of read in that man's face, that there is going to be some fun in
Ridgeboro."
"A tempest in a teapot, hey?" Westy said.
"You ought to apologize to the next teapot you meet," I shot back at
him. "Teapots aren't so small."
* * * * *
Pretty soon we got around the bend and then we could see the Skiddyunk
Station. It was a regular station with a platform and everything, all
fancy kind of.
"It makes the poor little Brewster's Centre Station look like a dollar
and a quarter," Connie said.
I said, "I haven't seen a dollar and a quarter for so long that I can't
tell, but the Brewster's Centre Station has traveled; that's what
counts."
Before we got to the station we saw where tracks branched off from the
tracks we were following, so we knew that all the trains that passed
Skiddyunk didn't pass Ridgeboro. I guess they didn't bother with that
place much. At the Skiddyunk Station we got a time table and found that
only one train a day passed Ridgeboro. It didn't go much further than
Ridgeboro. I guess it got sick, hey? It only went as far as Slopson.
Then we asked the express agent about freight trains and he said that a
freight train went along that branch line every three days. He said
there wouldn't be another one going east till Tuesday morning.
Oh, boy, weren't we glad!
"I'll miss French and civil government," Westy said.
Connie said he'd only miss history.
"I'll lose English and geography," I said; "but I won't miss them. Come
on up the main street and let's see if we can find an ice-cream store."