A STRANGE RIDE
"Let me help you!" begged Sue, when she saw what her brother was doing.
"I'll help you move the box."
Bunny Brown was glad to have his sister's help, and the two children
half carried, half dragged the empty packing box over to the freight
car.
"Oh, it's gone!" cried Sue in disappointed tones, as Bunny shoved the
box under the wide, open door.
"What's gone?" asked the little boy.
"The poor, hungry pussy! It ran away and now we can't feed it!"
"Hum!" exclaimed Bunny, who was also disappointed. "I guess--"
"Oh, there it is!" suddenly cried Sue, pointing, as the little cat--for
it was only half grown--thrust his head around the edge of the door.
"Keep still now, pussy, and we'll get you," begged Sue, as if the cat
knew what she was saying. The cat certainly heard, and perhaps it did
understand something of what the children were trying to do, for they
spoke very kindly. And let me tell you that dogs and cats can easily
tell the difference between kind and cross speaking.
While the little pussy looked down from the door of the freight car at
the two children, Bunny managed to scramble up on top of the wooden box.
From there he could easily get inside the car. He did not think he would
have to do this, however, and he did not want to, for the inside of the
car looked very dark and "scary." Bunny could not see to either end, for
the car was rather long.
But as the little boy climbed up on the box and reached out his hand to
grasp the kitten, the little cat, with a sad "mew!" backed farther
inside the big car.
"Come on, pussy!" called Bunny gently. "I won't hurt you!"
"We'll give you some nice milk," added Sue, standing on the ground near
the box. "Let Bunny get you!"
But this the strange cat did not want to do. Back into the car it ran,
just as you have very often, I suppose, seen a strange cat or dog run
away from you, until it made sure you were going to be kind.
By this time Bunny had leaned far enough inside the car to be able to
notice that it was not quite so black and "scary" as he had at first
thought. He could see each end easily now, and in one far corner was the
little cat, rubbing up against the sides of the car, as if it wanted to
be petted, but was afraid to let the children do it.
"I guess I'll have to go in after it," said Bunny.
"All right," agreed Sue. "I'll come and help you," and she scrambled up
on the box just as Bunny drew his legs up over the edge of the car and
went inside.
Mrs. Brown, from her place on the station platform, could look down the
tracks and see the line of freight cars which extended alongside the
street. She had seen Bunny and Sue walking in this direction, but she
did not imagine they would get inside a car. If she had seen Bunny
scrambling in after the cat she would have run down to make him come
out.
But she did not see this, for she had closed her eyes and was dozing a
little in the warm air of the sunny South. Nor did Mrs. Brown see Sue
climb up on the box after her brother.
As soon as Bunny went inside the car to get the cat Sue followed, and
there the two children were, inside the big boxcar, while pussy was
mewing sadly at one end, wanting to be petted and fed, but just a little
afraid.
"We'll get it now," said Bunny, as he saw Sue in the car with him. "You
go one side and I'll go the other. Then we'll catch it and take it to
mother."
"Maybe it'll scratch me," suggested Sue, for she had been scratched by
pet kittens more than once.
"No, I don't think it will," said Bunny. "Come up easy, so you won't
scare it."
Walking a little way apart down the length of the freight car, in which
they could now see very well, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue approached
the pussy. They held out their hands and hissed through their lips, for
they thought cats liked that sound. If it had been a little dog in the
freight car the children would have whistled, and the dog, very likely,
would have run to them, wagging its tail.
If Bunny and Sue had whistled they might have frightened the little
pussy, so they just made soft sounds through their lips, and walked
toward the small cat.
But when Bunny and his sister did this the pussy ran and hid as far back
as it could in one end of the car, as if afraid.
"Oh, we won't hurt you!" exclaimed Sue.
"We just want to get you and take you out so we can feed you," explained
Bunny.
But the pussy did not seem to understand.
"You go one way and I'll go the other," suggested Bunny. "We can catch
it between us."
"Like we did chickens at grandpa's farm once," agreed the little girl.
She remembered how she and her brother had once thus closed in on some
hens and a rooster that had got out of the chicken yard.
"That'll be a good way," Bunny said.
But when they tried it, he coming in toward the pussy from the right and
Sue from the left, the little cat just scampered between the children
with a "mew!" and there it was at the other end of the car!
"Oh, it's playing tag!" laughed Sue.
"I guess it is," agreed Bunny. "Come on, little cat!" called the boy.
"We have to go home pretty soon. We can't stay here all the afternoon."
"Oh, Bunny, how funny!" laughed Sue. "We aren't going _home_!"
"Well, we're going on to Florida, and that'll be home for a while," said
the little fellow. "Anyhow we've got to be going pretty soon or mother
will be looking for us. Come on now, we'll try again."
Once more they walked carefully toward the other end of the freight car,
whither the pussy had gone. But again the furry animal dashed between
Bunny and his sister, keeping out of reach of their eager hands.
"I don't b'lieve it wants us to catch him," said Sue.
"I don't b'lieve so, either," agreed Bunny.
But they did not give up trying, though the more they raced after the
little pussy the livelier that animal seemed to become, until Bunny and
Sue were getting quite tired.
Then, suddenly, when they were in one end of the car trying to corner
the lively little cat, there came a jar and a jolt to the car.
"What's that?" asked Sue, a bit frightened.
"Something bumped into us," Bunny answered. "I guess maybe it was the
engine." Then, as the children felt another bump, which shook the whole
car and them also, and as they heard a banging noise and the tooting of
a whistle, Bunny exclaimed: "Oh, an engine is hitching on our car! We're
going to have a ride!"
Before Sue could say anything the car suddenly became dark, for the
sliding door on the side, by which Bunny and his sister had entered,
slid shut with another bang.
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, this time in great fright. "We're shut in here!"
"Yes," agreed Bunny, trying hard to be brave and not cry as he felt Sue
was going to do. "I guess we are!"
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed his sister, "what'll we do?"
Bunny did not know just what to answer.
"Mew!" cried the little kitten, somewhere in the dark car. In fact, it
was so dark that neither Bunny nor Sue could see the other, and they
could not tell where pussy was.
There came another bang and rattle, a loud noise, and then Bunny Brown
and his sister Sue felt the car rolling away. A locomotive was pulling
it, giving the children a strange ride.