DOT'S ADVENTURE
"Good-by, Daddy! Good-by, Daddy dear! Good-by, dear, darling Daddy!"
The four little Blossoms all tried to hug their father at once. They
were at the station, where Sam and the car had brought them, and the
train that was to take them on the first lap of the journey to Aunt
Polly's farm was turning the curve down the track.
"Be good," said Father Blossom, speaking as clearly as he could with
Dot hanging around his neck and Twaddles pounding his chest
affectionately. "Help Mother all you can, and be sure to write me nice
letters."
The long, shiny train glided into the station, and there was a
scramble among the people waiting on the platform. Apparently every
one wanted to be the first to get on. It took Mother and Father
Blossom and Sam and the jolly conductor to see that all four of the
little Blossoms and the two bags were stowed away comfortably in two
seats.
Then Father Blossom and Sam got off and stood on the platform talking
through the open window until the train began to move slowly.
"Good-by!" shouted the children. "Good-by, Daddy! Good-by, Sam!"
Meg leaned over Twaddles, who was seated next to the window.
"Don't forget to feed Philip," she cried.
Sam waved his hand to show that he heard and understood, and the train
went faster and faster. In a few minutes Oak Hill station was far
behind them.
"Now we're started," announced Bobby, with satisfaction.
"Did my kiddie-car get on?" asked Twaddles anxiously. "S'posing they
forgot it?"
"Is that why you were hanging round the baggage-room?" demanded Bobby.
"Course the kiddie-car is on. I saw Mr. Hayes putting it on. You ask
the conductor."
But the conductor, who came through presently for tickets, didn't
know.
"I tell you what you do," he said, his eyes twinkling at Twaddles.
"You ask the brakesman to take you into the baggage car and let you
look around. Then you can see for yourself."
"But that is making a great deal of trouble," protested Mother
Blossom. "You can easily wait till we get to Brookside, dear."
"Let him go, let him go," advised the conductor cheerily. "It will
kind of break up the monotony of the trip, ma'am. These little folks
are going to get pretty tired before they get to Alawana."
So Twaddles marched off importantly with the conductor to find the
young, good-natured brakesman, and the three little Blossoms rather
wished they could go, too.
"What happens when we get to Alawana, Mother?" asked Bobby. "Do we
change cars?"
"No, dear, we take the boat," explained Mother Blossom. "If the train
is on time we have an hour to wait, which will allow us to have lunch;
then we take a steamer that takes us up Lake Tobago to Little Havre.
There we take a stage, or a wagon, or whatever they have to meet the
boat, and ride to Four Crossways; and there Aunt Polly meets us and
drives us over to Brookside."
"Here comes Twaddles," announced Dot. "Did you find the kiddie car?"
she asked.
"Yes, it's there," reported Twaddles, squeezing in past Meg, and
climbing into his place beside his twin. "There's lots of trunks and
things there, too."
During the long stretches when the train hummed steadily along and
there was nothing to be seen from the car windows but miles and miles
of green fields and woods with here and there a house, the children
played a game Mother Blossom had known when she was a little girl.
"My ship is loaded with apples," Bobby would say.
"My ship is loaded with apricots," Meg would declare.
Dot usually had to think a minute.
"My ship is loaded with--with ashes," she might announce finally.
"My ship is loaded with at;" this from Twaddles.
"Oh, Twaddles!" Bobby would scold. "You can't load a ship with 'at.'
That isn't anything."
"'Tis, too," maintained Twaddles stubbornly. "It begins with 'a,'
doesn't it? And it's a word. So there."
If Twaddles had his way and was excused from thinking up another word,
it would be Mother Blossom's turn.
"My ship is loaded with asters," she might say, smiling.
When no one could think of another word that began with A, they would
go on to B. This game amused the children for many minutes at a time.
They had just started on words beginning with C when the train reached
Alawana.
"I'm hungry," declared Meg, when they all stood together on the
platform and the train that had brought them from Oak Hill was nothing
but a black speck in the distance. "We had breakfast an awful long
time ago."
"I guess it was yesterday," said Dot mournfully.
Mother Blossom laughed.
"Poor chickens, you are hungry," she said. "Never mind, I see a nice
little restaurant across the street. Let me find out when the boat
goes, and then we'll have a good, hot lunch."
The Lake Tobago boat, Mother Blossom found out, left in half an hour.
Their train had been late. However, the dock was not far off, and
Mother Blossom was sure they would have time for sandwiches and milk
at least.
All the children were tremendously excited at the thought of going on
a steamer, as not one of them had ever been on a boat. There was no
lake or river near Oak Hill, and the largest body of water the four
little Blossoms had seen was the town reservoir.
"If they have sails, I'm going to roll 'em up and down," Dot
announced, so thrilled at the prospect that she upset her glass of
milk down the front of her frock.
"You'll have to wear it," said Mother Blossom, mopping her as dry as
she could with a napkin. "Perhaps I can put a dry dress on you on the
boat. Now try to eat quietly, dear; we haven't much time."
The shower-bath of milk rather subdued Dot for the moment, and lunch
was finished without further mishap. Then a brief walk through the
pretty little country town brought them to the lake.
"O-oh! Isn't it lovely!" breathed Meg. "Just see how it sparkles in
the sun. Don't you like it, Dot?"
"It's all right," agreed Dot carelessly.
Her quick eyes had spied an old organ grinder and his monkey on the
other side of the dock. She slipped under the rope, where the people
who wanted to take the boat were standing, and ran over to the music.
"We needn't have hurried," said Mother Blossom, coming back to her
little folk. She had been to the office to have the baggage checks
looked after. "The boat is held up for another half hour because of
some engine trouble. Where's Dot?"
Well, where was Dot? Meg had thought her little sister was standing
next to her. The boys were sure she had been just behind them. Where
was Dot?
She stood in the crowd gathered about the organ grinder, a little girl
with shining dark eyes and a milk-splashed frock, watching the clever
bowing and scraping of the small monkey with evident delight. Then a
sudden movement of the people about her startled her. She remembered
that she was supposed to go somewhere with the rest of her family. She
saw people hurrying toward a large automobile with nine or ten long
seats in it, and she hurried toward it, too. A man helped her up the
high step, and she found a seat just behind the driver.
The automobile was lumbering up a narrow white road with woods on
either side of it before Dot realized where she was.
"Why, this isn't the boat!" she said aloud.
The lady seated next to her glanced at her curiously.
"The boat?" she repeated. "This jitney goes to Fermarsh. You're not
traveling all alone, are you, little girl? You don't look more'n
five."
"I was four in June," announced Dot with dignity. "Twaddles was, too.
We're twins. But I have to go to Little Havre on the boat."
"You're going in the opposite direction," said the woman placidly. She
did not seem to care. "What's that on your dress?"
Dot's tears brimmed over.
"Milk," she sobbed. "I tipped it over. An' I have to go on the boat
with my mother."
The jitney driver heard and turned.
"What's this?" he asked. "You belong on the boat, little girl? Well,
now, don't cry; we'll fix it. I heard they had engine trouble to-day,
and like as not they'll be late starting. Long up the road a spell
we'll meet the two o'clock jitney coming back, and I'll see that Dave
Gunn takes you in with him. An' if you do miss the boat my wife'll
take care of you over night and we'll ship you up to Little Havre on
to-morrow's boat."
Dot felt that the jitney driver was very kind, but she hoped with all
her heart that she would not have to stay all night in a strange
house. She wanted her mother, and Twaddles and Meg and Bobby. She
hadn't known till this minute how dearly she loved them.
Sure enough, their jitney had not gone very far when they saw another
jitney coming toward them.
"Hi, Dave!" called the driver of Dot's jitney. "Got a passenger for
you. A little lady who tangled up her traveling directions and missed
getting on the boat. You take her with you, and see that she lands on
the steamer."
Mr. Gunn stopped his machine and came over to the other jitney.
"Come on, Sister," he said pleasantly, lifting Dot down gently.
"Why, you are little to be traveling on your own. I've got three home
'bout your size."
Mother Blossom, as you may suppose, had been nearly frantic all this
time. She had taken the other children on board the boat and had left
them on deck with the bags, after they had promised not to stir from
the spot where she left them, and she had been going up and down the
dock making inquiries, and even walking up into the town, believing
that perhaps some of the store windows had attracted Dot.
No one remembered seeing a little girl in a green dress and a brown
straw hat.
Just as Mother Blossom was wearily wondering if she should telegraph
Father Blossom that Dot was lost, a motor jitney lumbered down to the
dock. Some one in a green dress and a brown straw hat was sitting on
the front seat beside the driver.
"Mother! Mother!" shouted Dot.
There was just time for her to tumble out of the car into her mother's
arms, just time for Mother Blossom to give the driver a dollar bill
and say a word of thanks, and then the steamboat whistle blew loudly
once.
"That means she's starting," said the jitney man. "Run!"
And hand in hand, Mother Blossom and Dot raced down the wharf and over
the gangplank on to the deck of the boat, just as it began to slide
away.