AT TARRINGTON
"Are we there?" cried Laddie, as he slid out of his seat and turned to
Grandpa Ford. "Are we at Great Hedge?"
"Well, if we are, the train must have run into it, and got stuck fast,"
answered the old gentleman with a smile.
"What made it bump so?" asked Violet.
"I think we must have hit a snow bank, or else some of the rails and
switches are stopped up with snow," answered Daddy Bunker.
It was getting quite dark, because of the snow clouds outside, and the
electric lights of the train had been switched on. Every one in the car
where the Bunkers rode, and, I suppose, in each of the other cars of the
train, had been well shaken up when it stopped so suddenly. But no one
had really been hurt.
"Perhaps we had better see what it is," said Daddy Bunker to his
stepfather. "Perhaps the train can't go any farther, and we can't get to
Tarrington."
"Oh, can't we go to Grandpa's?" asked Rose, looking as if she could not
bear to have such a dreadful thing happen. "I want to go!"
"If the train can't go we can get out and walk," suggested Russ. "I like
to walk in the snow. If I had some lawn tennis rackets I could make
snowshoes for all of us, and we could walk on them."
"But you haven't any tennis rackets," observed Laddie. "And you can't
get any on the train, lessen maybe the boy that had Mun Bun's popgun has
some."
"They don't play lawn tennis in winter," said Rose.
"Hush, children, dear," begged Mrs. Bunker, for they were raising their
voices as they talked. "We want to hear what the trainman says."
"What happened that made us stop so quickly, and with such a bump?"
asked Grandpa Ford, as the railroad man came in covered with the white
flakes. "Was there an accident?"
"A little one," the man answered. "But we'll soon be all right. The snow
clogged and stopped up a switch, and the engineer was afraid he would
get on the wrong track, so he put on the brakes quickly and made a short
and sudden stop. But we are going to dig away the snow, and then, I
think, we can go on again."
"We want to go to Grandpa Ford's," spoke up Violet, as she stood close
to the trainman. "Will the train take us there?"
"It will if the snow will let us, little girl," was the answer, and many
passengers in the train laughed at Vi's funny question.
The brakeman hurried out, and some of the men passengers, putting on
their heavy overcoats, went with him. It was too dark outside for any of
the six little Bunkers to see anything that was going on. But by placing
their faces close against the windows of the car and holding a hand on
either side of the face to shut out the light in the car, they could see
a little way into the darkness outside.
"It's snowing hard," reported Russ.
"I like it," said Rose. "We can have some sleigh rides, and coast
downhill."
"And build snow men," added Violet, giving a little wriggle of pleasure.
"And snow forts, and have snowball fights!" exclaimed Laddie.
Mun Bun and Margy were eating some cookies their mother had saved for
them, so they didn't say anything, just then.
"Could you ever make a snow man that would talk?" asked Vi, when she and
the others had tired of looking out at the swirling flakes.
"'Course not!" exclaimed Laddie. "That would be like a riddle."
"I could make a snow man talk," declared Russ.
"You could not! How could you?" asked Laddie.
"I could scoop out a hollow place in his back and put a phonograph
inside, and when I wound it up the snow man would talk."
"The phonograph would freeze inside a snow man," said Laddie.
"No, it wouldn't. If it did I could build a little fire and melt it,"
Russ went on. "Maybe I'll do it, too; that is, if I can find a
phonograph."
"But if you built a fire to thaw out the phonograph it would melt the
snow man," said Rose.
Russ seemed to be puzzled by this.
"Well, I'd do it somehow," he declared. "I'd just build a little fire,
and that wouldn't melt the snow man very much."
Back into the car came trooping some of the men who had gone out to see
the switch and rails clogged with the snow.
"Are we able to go on?" asked Grandpa Ford of one of these men.
"I think so," was the answer. "The snow has been shoveled away from the
switch, and the engineer is going to try again. But it is a bad storm,
and I doubt if we get through to-night."
"Won't we get home to your place, Grandpa?" asked Laddie.
"It's hard to tell," answered the old gentleman. "But, if worst comes to
worst, we can stay on the train all night. We can sleep here and eat
here, but perhaps we can get almost to Tarrington, and drive in a big
sled the rest of the way."
"Where can you get a sled?" asked Violet, always ready with a question.
"Oh, I can hire one, if I can't get my own," said Grandpa Ford. "I told
one of my men to meet us at the depot with a big carriage. But when he
sees it snowing, as it is now up at Great Hedge, he'll take out the
sled, I'm sure."
"I like to ride in a sled," said Rose. "It's such fun to cuddle down in
the fur robes."
"Have you got fur robes, Grandpa?" Vi inquired.
"Oh, yes, plenty of them," he answered. "But I hope we'll get to
Tarrington," he added in a low voice to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker. "I would
not want to drive in an open sled through this cold storm with the
children."
"They wouldn't mind it," said Daddy Bunker. "If they were well-wrapped
they would like it."
"I suppose I should have waited until warmer weather to bring you to
Great Hedge," went on Grandpa Ford. "But I wanted to have the children
with me, and so did their grandmother. She hasn't seen them all together
for some time. So I just thought I'd bring you in the winter, and not
wait for summer."
"And I'm glad you did," said Mother Bunker. "We'll be all right, once we
get there."
"Another reason why I wanted you at Great Hedge," went on Grandpa Ford,
"is that I want you to help me find out about those queer noises, and
what makes them. If there's a----"
But just then Grandpa Ford saw Rose and Russ looking at him in a queer
and interested way and as if they wanted to hear what was being said, so
he stopped with:
"Well, you know what I mean."
"Yes," said Daddy Bunker. "We know."
"I know what they were talking about," said Russ in a whisper to Rose, a
little later.
"What?"
"About the ghost. Grandpa has a ghost at Great Hedge, and he wants to
find it. We'll find it for him, Rose."
"Yes, but we mustn't tell any one else about it," and Rose nodded
toward Mun Bun and the others.
"No, we won't tell them," agreed Russ. "We'll hunt all by ourselves, and
s'prise Grandpa and Grandma."
The passengers were now settled in their seats again, and pretty soon
the train started off once more. It did not go as fast as at first,
because there was so much snow on the tracks. But there were no more
sudden stops, and soon a brakeman came through the coach and said he
thought everything would be all right.
"Will we get to Tarrington?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"Yes, I am pretty sure we shall," was the answer.
The train did get to Tarrington, though not without some trouble and one
or two more stops to clear snow out of the switches. And when Tarrington
was reached it was quite late. It was dark, and cold, and snowing hard.
"I don't know about going on to my place to-night," said Grandpa Ford
with a shake of his head as he looked at the six little Bunkers. "I'm
afraid it will be a long, cold drive for them."
"Wrap them up in robes and we'll try it," said Daddy Bunker. "Is your
sled here?"
"Yes, my man is here with a strong team of horses and the big bob sled.
He says the roads are pretty good, but it is very cold. Well, we'll try.
And, if we can't make it, we'll come back and stay at the hotel here all
night."
They were in the Tarrington station now, where it was nice and warm and
light. Outside it was dark and cold and snowing hard. But the children
did not mind.
"We'll soon be at Grandpa's!" chanted Laddie.
"And have some bread and jam!" added Violet. "What's jam made of?" she
asked quickly. "Has it got honey in to make it sweet?"
"No time for questions now," said Mother Bunker. "Save them until we get
to Grandpa's."
"I'm hungry!" wailed Margy. "I want something to eat!"
"So do I!" added Mun Bun.
"There's a lunch counter in this station," said Grandpa Ford. "If you
want to we can get the children something to eat here, and perhaps we'd
better, before we start on the long, cold drive. It may be late before
we get to Great Hedge."
"Yes, I think it best to get something," agreed Daddy Bunker. "I'll go
and see what there is to eat."
Daddy Bunker started toward the lunch counter, but at that moment there
was a loud crash, a breaking of glass, and a voice cried:
"Now you've gone and done it! You busted it, an' spilled 'em all!"