AT RING ROSY RANCH
There was so much noise in the sleeping car where the Curlytops and
others had been peacefully traveling through the night, that, at
first, it was hard to tell what had happened.
All that anyone knew was that there had been a severe jolt--a "bunk"
Teddy called it--and that the train had come to a sudden stop. So
quickly had it stopped, in fact, that a fat man, who was asleep in a
berth just behind Mr. Martin, had tumbled out and now sat in the
aisle of the car, gazing about him, a queer look on his sleepy face,
for he was not yet fully awake.
"I say!" cried the fat man. "Who pushed me out of bed?"
Even though they were much frightened, Mrs. Martin and some of the
other men and women could not help laughing at this. And the laughter
did more to quiet them than anything else.
"Well, I guess no one here is much hurt--if at all," said Daddy
Martin, as he put on a pair of soft slippers he had ready in the
little hammock that held his clothes inside the berth. "I'll go and
see if I can find out what the matter is."
"An', Daddy, bring me suffin t'eat!" exclaimed Trouble, poking his
head out between the curtains of the berth where he had been sleeping
with his mother when the collision happened.
"There's one boy that's got sense," said a tall thin man, who was
helping the fat man to get to his feet "He isn't hurt, anyhow."
"Thank goodness, no," said Mrs. Martin, who, as had some of the
other women, had on a dressing gown. Mrs. Martin was looking at
Trouble, whom she had taken up in her arms. "He hasn't a scratch on
him," she said, "though I heard him slam right against the side of
the car. He was next to the window."
"It's a mercy we weren't all of us tossed out of the windows when
the train stopped so suddenly, the way it did," said a little old
woman.
"It's a mercy, too," smiled another woman who had previously made
friends with Jan and Teddy, "that the Curlytops did not come hurtling
down out of those upper berths."
Mr. Martin, after making sure his family was all right, partly
dressed and went out with some of the other men. The train had come
to a standstill, and Jan and Ted, looking out of the windows of their
berths, could see men moving about in the darkness outside with
flaring torches.
"Maybe it's robbers," said Teddy in a whisper.
"Robbers don't stop trains," objected Janet
"Yes they do!" declared her brother positively, "Train robbers do.
Don't they, Mother?"
"Oh, don't talk about such things now, Teddy boy. Be thankful you
are all right and hope that no one is hurt in the collision."
"That's what I say!" exclaimed the fat man. "So it's a collision, is
it? I dreamed we were in a storm and that I was blown out of bed."
"Well, you fell out, which is much the same thing," said the thin
man. "Our car doesn't seem to be hurt, anyhow."
Ted and Janet came out into the aisle in their pajamas. They looked
all about them but, aside from seeing a number of men and women who
were greatly excited, nothing else appeared to be the matter. Then in
came their father with some of the other men.
"It isn't a bad collision," said Daddy Martin. "Our engine hit a
freight car that was on a side track, but too close to our rails to
be passed safely. It jarred up our engine and the front cars quite a
bit, and our engine is off the track, but no one is hurt."
"That's good!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin. "I mean that no one is hurt."
"How are they going to get the engine back on the track?" Teddy
wanted to know. "Can't I go out and watch 'em?"
"I want to go, too!" exclaimed Janet.
"Indeed you can't--in the dark!" exclaimed her father. "Besides, the
railroad men don't want you in the way. They asked us all to go to
our coaches and wait. They'll soon have the engine back on the rails
they said."
Everyone was awake now, and several children in the car, like
Trouble, were hungry. The porter who had been hurrying to and fro
said he could get the children some hot milk from the dining-car, and
this he did.
Some of the grown folks wanted coffee and sandwiches, and these
having been brought in, there was quite a merry picnic in the coach,
even if the train had been in a collision.
Then there was much puffing and whistling of the engine. The
Curlytops, looking out of the window again, saw more men hurrying
here and there with flaring torches which flickered and smoked. These
were the trainmen helping to get the engine back on the rails, which
they did by using iron wedges or "jumpers," much as a trolley car in
your city streets is put back on the rails once it slips off.
At last there was another "bunk" to the train, as Teddy called it.
At this several women screamed.
"It's all right," said Daddy Martin. "They've got the engine back on
the rails and it has just backed up to couple on, or fasten itself,
to the cars again. Now we'll go forward again."
And they did--in a little while. It did not take the Curlytops or
Trouble long to fall asleep once more, but some of the older people
were kept awake until morning, they said afterward. They were afraid
of another collision.
But none came, and though the train was a little late the accident
really did not amount to much, though it might have been a bad one
had the freight car been a little farther over on the track so the
engine had run squarely into it.
All the next day and night the Curlytops traveled in the train, and
though Jan and Ted liked to look out of the windows, they grew tired
of this after a while and began to ask:
"When shall we be at Uncle Frank's ranch?"
"Pretty soon now," said their father.
I will not tell you all that happened on the journey to the West.
Truth to say there was not much except the collision. The Curly-tops
ate their meals, drank cupful after cupful of water, and Trouble did
the same, for children seem to get very thirsty when they
travel--much more so than at home.
Then, finally, one afternoon, after a long stop when a new engine
was attached to the train, Daddy Martin said:
"Well be at Rockville in an hour now. So we'd better begin to get
together our things."
"Shall we be at Uncle Frank's ranch in an hour?" asked Teddy.
"No, but well be at Rockville. From there we go out over the
prairies in a wagon."
"A wagon with ponies?" asked Janet.
"Yes, real Western ponies," said her father. "Then well be at the
ranch."
And it happened just that way. On puffed the train. Then the porter
came to help the Martin family off at Rockville.
"Rockville! Rockville! All out for Rockville!" joked Daddy Martin.
"Hurray!" cried Teddy. "Here we are!"
"And I see Uncle Frank!" exclaimed Janet, looking from the window
toward the station as the train slowed up to stop.
Out piled the Curlytops, and into the arms of Uncle Frank they
rushed. He caught them up and kissed them one after the other--Teddy,
Janet and Trouble.
"Well, well!" he cried, "I'm glad to see you! Haven't changed a bit
since you were snowed in! Now pile into the wagon and well get right
out to Circle O Ranch."
"Where's that?" asked Teddy.
"Why, that's the name of my ranch," said Uncle Frank. "See, there's
the sign of it," and he pointed to the flank of one of the small
horses, or ponies, hitched to his wagon. Ted and Janet saw a large
circle in which was a smaller letter O.
"We call it Circle O," explained the ranchman. "Each place in the
West that raises cattle or horses has a certain sign with which the
animals are branded, or marked, so their owners can tell them from
others in case they get mixed up. My mark is a circle around an O."
"It looks like a ring-around-the-rosy," said Janet.
"Say! So it does!" laughed Uncle Frank. "I never thought of that.
Ring Rosy Ranch! That isn't a half bad name! Guess I'll call mine
that after this. Come on to Ring Rosy Ranch!" he invited as he
laughed at the Curlytops.
And the name Janet gave Uncle Frank's place in fun stuck to it, so
that even the cowboys began calling their ranch "Ring Rosy," instead
of "Circle O."