ABOARD THE “BEACON”
Mr. Brown, who had been waving farewell to some of his friends on the
station platform, turned toward his wife as he heard her voice and
asked:
“What’s the matter?”
“Bunny is gone!”
“Gone?”
“Yes! He was in his seat with Sue a moment ago. He must have got off
the train to see some of his boy friends. Quick, Walter, go and get
him!”
Mr. Brown darted for the door, but paused a moment to ask Sue:
“Did Bunny go out?”
“I didn’t see him,” Sue answered.
But then she had been looking out of the window and would not have
noticed what her brother did. Mr. Brown gave a quick glance about the
car. Bunny was not in sight and the train was now pulling rapidly
out of the station.
Then a man, who was sitting just behind Mrs. Brown, said:
“I saw a little boy go out of that door. Perhaps he may be the one
you are looking for.”
“Oh, yes, I guess he is!” gasped Sue’s mother. “Bunny is always doing
such strange things!”
By this time Mr. Brown was near the door leading out to the front
platform of that car in which the Browns were traveling. But before
his father could step outside in came Bunny.
“Where have you been, Bunny?” cried his mother.
“Just out on the platform,” he replied. “Why?”
“You shouldn’t go out on the platform when the train is moving,”
chided his father. “You might be jolted off.”
“The train wasn’t moving when I went out there,” explained the little
boy, as he went to his seat beside his sister. “I came in as soon as
it began to move.”
“Why did you go outside?” asked Bunny’s father.
“I wanted to throw away my chewing gum,” he explained. “I got through
with it, and I thought maybe if I dropped it on the floor of the car
somebody would step on it. So I went outside to throw it away.”
“Well, that was a right thing to do,” said Mr. Brown. “But it would
have been safer to have thrown it out of a window. Don’t go out on
the platform again.”
“No, sir, I won’t,” promised the little boy.
The excitement was over, and the Browns began to enjoy the train
ride. Of course it was more fun for Bunny and Sue than it was for
their parents, since the little ones had not traveled as much as had
the older folks.
The ride to Philadelphia took all the morning and part of the
afternoon, but the day was broken in a very delightful way, for the
children, at least, when they went to the dining car for lunch.
“I love to eat in a car, don’t you, Bunny?” whispered Sue.
“Yes,” he answered. “It’s fun to see the trees go whizzing by and
the telegraph poles skip along while you’re eating.”
The travelers reached the Broad street station in Philadelphia about
three o’clock, and Bunny and Sue looked about them in wonder at the
big train shed into which the engine pulled them. It was noisy,
smoky, and dirty, and they were glad to get out of it into the open
air. Across the street from the station was a great building.
“That is the Philadelphia city hall,” explained Mr. Brown. “On top,
though you can’t see it from here, is a big statue of William Penn
who years ago helped settle Pennsylvania, which is the state we are
now in.”
“That’s a funny city hall,” exclaimed Bunny. “Look, there’s a street
going right under it, and automobiles, too!”
“That’s queer—a street under a building!” said Sue.
“The city hall is so large that it is built right over the sidewalk,”
explained Mr. Brown, “and, as you say, Bunny, a street, or an alley,
runs beneath it. Now come around this way.”
“Oh, look at the pigeons!” cried Bunny as he ran on ahead around one
corner of the building. Here was a plaza and here and there were
statues of famous men on pedestals. Flying in the air overhead or
flocking down on the sidewalk to pick up grains and nuts scattered
by bird-lovers were scores of pigeons. They were so tame that one of
them flew down on a man’s arm and picked grains of wheat from his
open hand.
“Oh, aren’t they cute!” cried Sue.
“I wish I could feed them,” said Bunny.
“Here you are, children. Give them some of my grains,” offered the
man of whom the birds did not seem in the least afraid. He poured
into the outstretched palms of Bunny and Sue some wheat from a bag
he carried. Then, as the children held out their hands, the pigeons
circled around them and one finally perched on Bunny’s wrist and
began picking up the grains.
“Oh, I wish I had one!” cried Sue.
A moment later her wish was granted, for down flew a beautiful white
bird and, cooing away, perched on Sue’s arm. Then, as she trembled
with delight and held out her hand with the wheat in it, the pigeon
began to eat the grains.
“Well, I think we have been here long enough,” said Mr. Brown to his
wife and children. “Come! We must go on to the hotel now.”
“Oh, are we going to stay at a hotel?” cried Bunny, for his pigeon,
having eaten all the grains from the little boy’s hand, had now flown
away.
“Yes, we shall stay at a hotel to-night and go on board the _Beacon_
in the morning,” explained Mr. Brown. “It is rather late to go on her
now. As it is, we shall be on board long enough. I think one more
night in a comfortable big bed will be best for all of us.”
“Won’t there be any beds on the ship?” Sue wanted to know. “Do we
have to sit up all night?”
“Oh, no, we’ll go to bed, of course,” said her mother with a laugh.
“But daddy means on the ship there isn’t as much room as we have at
home or in a hotel. We shall have to live in small staterooms, and
the beds are more like shelves on the wall than real beds.”
“I know!” cried Bunny. “They’re bunks, like we slept in when we went
to the sugar camp.”
“Something like that, yes,” agreed his father.
Having shown the children the city hall, which was the reason he did
not at once take a taxicab at the station, Mr. Brown now called one
of the swift little autos and soon he and his family were in a fine
hotel on one of the main streets of Philadelphia.
If they had not been so eager to get on board the ship, so they might
begin voyaging on the rolling ocean, Bunny and Sue would have enjoyed
their stay at the hotel much more.
As it was, they liked the place well enough and thought the big
dining room wonderfully fine, brilliant as it was with lights while
soft music played.
Going back to their own floor, Bunny, walking along the corridor, saw
near the room where he was to sleep with his father a little red box
with a glass door. Hanging by a short chain to the box was a little
hammer.
“Oh, what’s that?” asked Bunny, pointing to it. “Is the little hammer
there so they can see who can break the glass first? Let me try!” he
begged, reaching up toward the red box. “I’ll break it!”
“No, indeed! Don’t touch that!” cried Bunny’s father, holding him
back. “That’s a fire alarm. There is a hook to pull down, which makes
a bell ring and gives the alarm. The glass is over the hook so it
can’t be so easily pulled. But in case of fire the glass is to be
broken with the little hammer and the hook pulled down. We don’t want
any fire alarms now, Bunny.”
“Well, but if there is a fire, can I break the glass and send in the
alarm?” the little boy wanted to know.
“I guess so. Yes, if you see the fire first,” laughed his father.
“We don’t want any fires, though,” said Mrs. Brown. “We’ll hope,
Bunny, that you’ll not have a chance to send in the alarm.”
Though feeling a little strange at first in their hotel beds, Bunny
and Sue at last fell asleep and did not awaken until their father and
mother called them in the morning. After breakfast they took another
taxicab to the wharf where the _Beacon_ was tied up.
“Oh, she’s a nice ship!” exclaimed Bunny, getting his first glimpse
of the steamer that was to be their home for several weeks.
“It’s bigger than our play boat,” said Sue.
“And it’s got real water around it!” added Bunny.
“I should think it would have,” said his mother. “A big ship like the
_Beacon_ couldn’t very well sail on a grass plot as your pretend boat
sails at home.”
“That water is the Delaware River,” explained Mr. Brown. “We shall go
down the river in a little while.”
“Oh, aren’t we going on the rolling ocean?” asked Bunny, in
disappointed tones.
“Yes,” answered his father. “The Delaware River empties into the
ocean. We shall be on the big waves soon enough, don’t worry!”
This pleased the children, and they walked up the gangplank and on
board the _Beacon_.
“Glad to see you,” said Captain Ward, who knew Mr. Brown. “I’ll call
a steward and have him take you to your staterooms.”
“Oh, what cute little cabins!” cried Sue, as she looked in the one
where she and her mother were to sleep.
“Look! There are bunks!” called Bunny, pointing to the beds fastened
one above the other against the wall.
Then, as the steward was pointing out places for them to stow away
their luggage, the ship began to tremble and seemed to be moving.
“Oh, are we going to start so soon?” asked Mrs. Brown. “Why, our
trunks aren’t on board! Do stop the ship, Walter! Don’t let it go!”