NUTTY, THE TRAMP
Bunny and Sue were so surprised when they found that they were being
hauled away in the closed and dark freight car that for a time after
their first startled cries they said nothing. They remained standing
hand in hand in the middle of the dark, empty space, swaying to and fro
as the train bumped over the uneven rails.
"Oh, Bunny!" gasped Sue in a little whisper, "where do you s'pose we're
going?"
"I don't know," he answered. "But it's somewhere. We're having a ride,
anyhow."
This was true enough. They were moving along quite swiftly now, but not
nearly so smoothly or so comfortably as when they had ridden in the
parlor car or the sleeping car.
"Will mother and daddy come?" asked Sue, her voice a bit shaky because
she was half crying.
"I--I don't guess they will," her brother answered. "Daddy is uptown,
seeing a man, and mother was on the station bench when we crawled in
this car to get the cat."
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue, and then she tried to peer through the gloom to see
Bunny. At first, after the door had slid shut, she could only dimly see
where her brother stood, even though she had hold of his hand. But now,
as her eyes became used to the darkness, she could make out that Bunny
was standing close beside her.
What had happened was this. The children had climbed into an empty
freight car that was standing on a siding, as the extra tracks around a
railroad station are called. The freight had been taken from the car
some days before, and, being empty, it was needed to be loaded again.
A switch engine, which was "picking up empties," as the railroad men
call it, had backed down the track and had been fastened to several cars
in addition to the one containing Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. The
railroad men, of course, did not know that the children were in the car.
And they knew nothing about the pussy cat. They supposed the freight car
was empty.
The freight engine, in backing down the track to be coupled, or
fastened, to the cars, had banged into them rather hard. This hard bang
had slid shut the sliding door, making Bunny, Sue, and the cat
prisoners.
"Oh!" suddenly exclaimed Sue after a period of silence.
"What's the matter?" asked Bunny, for, having hold of his sister's hand,
he could feel her jump.
"Something rubbed up against my legs," she answered.
"It's the cat!" exclaimed Bunny.
"Oh!" cried Sue again, and this time there was happiness in her voice.
She leaned down and felt around her legs. Her hand touched a warm, furry
back. "It is pussy!" she cried. "And kitty let me pick him up! Oh,
Bunny, it's purring like anything!" Sue exclaimed.
"I guess it's lonesome, too, and maybe don't like to ride in a freight
car, so it's getting tame," Bunny said. And perhaps this did explain it.
"I can pick him up!" cried Sue in delight. And, a moment later, she had
the pussy in her arms. Surely enough the little fluffy fellow was no
longer afraid of the children. It wanted to be near them for company,
and it snuggled down in Sue's arms, while Bunny reached over in the dark
and softly stroked the animal.
All this while the freight car was being hauled farther and farther away
from the railroad station.
"I'm going to sit down," said Sue, and she did, taking her place on the
floor of the car with her legs stretched out, making a lap for the cat.
Bunny, whose eyes were also becoming used to the dark, could see what
Sue was doing, and he sat down beside her, reaching over now and then
and petting pussy. The little cat seemed quite content now, and if it
was hungry it did not cry.
"Maybe I could open the door so we could get out," suggested Bunny,
after a bit.
"You couldn't get off this car while it was moving, even if you could
open the door," Sue stated. "Don't you 'member mother said we should
never get on a trolley car when it was moving, or get off?"
"Yes," admitted Bunny. "I 'member that. But I'm not going to get off
till the car stops. Only I'll see if I can get the door open, so we'll
be all ready to get off when it does stop."
With this in mind Bunny arose from his place on the floor of the swaying
freight car beside Sue and the kitten in her lap, and tried to make his
way over to where some cracks of light showed around the door. There
were two sliding doors to the car, one by which the children had
entered, and another opposite. But this last showed no light around the
edges, and Bunny rightly guessed that this one was fastened more tightly
than the one that had slid shut.
It was one thing for Bunny to say he would open the door, but it was
quite another thing to do it. For by this time the engine was puffing
away down the track at good speed, and the little fellow soon found that
it was very hard to walk across the empty freight car. It swayed from
side to side, much more so than an ordinary railroad coach, and a great
deal more than a Pullman car.
But if it was difficult for him to walk in a regular passenger car, it
was much harder in the swaying freight car. And when he tried to make
his way to the door he was nearly thrown off his feet.
"Oh, Bunny, look out! You'll be hurt! What are you going to do?" asked
Sue, for she could see her brother fairly well now.
"I'm going to open that door!" grunted Bunny. The reason he grunted was
because he sat down suddenly. He had been swayed right off his feet.
"You can't do it!" Sue said. "Don't get hurt, Bunny!"
"I won't," he answered. "But we've got to get out of this car, and I've
got to get that door open! I know what I can do," he went on. "If I
can't walk over I can crawl. I did that when I was a baby."
Bunny Brown was a smart and brave little fellow, and, as he said, when
he found he could not walk upright, because the car swayed so, he made
up his mind to crawl. And crawl he did, across the rough, splintery
floor of the old car. Once he stuck a sliver into the palm of his hand.
He cried "Ouch!" but the rumble of the wheels was so loud that Sue did
not hear him, and Bunny was glad of it.
He stopped, pulled the splinter from his hand, and then bravely went on
again, crawling over the swaying car. At last he reached the door, and
as there were projections on the side, by which he could hold himself,
Bunny managed to stand up.
"Now I'm going to open the door, Sue!" he called to his sister. "And
when the train stops we can get off and go back to mother and daddy."
"Yes, I guess we'd better do that," Sue answered. "They'll get worried
about us."
Holding to a wooden brace on the side of the car with one hand, Bunny
tried to push back the heavy, sliding door with the other. It went a few
inches, letting more light inside the car, but there the door stuck. And
it was, perhaps, a good thing that it did. For if the door had opened
suddenly the little boy might have been pitched out, for the train of
empty freight cars was now moving swiftly.
Bunny pulled and tugged so hard that he fairly grunted.
"What's the matter?" asked Sue, hearing him.
"I--I can't get this door--open!" gasped her brother.
"Oh, well, never mind," she said. "Maybe some of the trainmen will come
along and let us out."
"How can they come along when the train is moving?" Bunny wanted to
know.
"Didn't you ever see 'em run along on top of the freight cars?" asked
Sue.
"Yes. But this door is on the _side_--not on _top_," her brother
answered. "I've got to get it open if we want to get out!"
He pulled and tugged again, but it was of no use. The door had opened a
little way, making a crack through which Bunny could see the sunny
fields, the trees, the telegraph poles, and the fences gliding past.
But the crack was all too small for him or Sue to squeeze through.
"I guess we'll have to wait," Bunny said at length, as he crawled back
to the side of his sister.
"You can hold pussy a little while," she said to him. Bunny was very
glad to do this, and the little cat snuggled down on his legs, while he
gently stroked the soft fur.
On and on rumbled the freight train, clicking and clacking over the
rails, and making a roaring sound when it crossed a bridge. Suddenly,
above the other creaking, jolting sounds another noise sounded. It was
like a groan.
"What's that?" asked Sue, reaching over and grasping Bunny by the arm.
She could see him plainly now, because the door was open a wider crack.
"What's what?" asked Bunny, who had been trying to make the pussy stand
up on its hind legs.
"That noise," went on Sue. "Didn't you hear it?"
Both children listened, and above the noise made by the clacking wheels
they did hear a groan! Or was it a grunt?
"Oh!" cried Sue, almost crawling into Bunny's lap. "What is it?"
"I don't know," the little boy answered, and he was beginning to feel as
frightened as was Sue.
Again a noise, somewhere between a grunt and a groan, sounded through
the car, and the children also heard a movement. Bunny glanced in the
direction of it, and saw what at first he had taken to be a bundle of
rags moving in one dark corner.
"Who's there?" boldly cried Bunny, holding Sue's hand.
"Why, I'm here," was the answer. "I'm Nutty, the tramp. Who are you? My,
I've had a fine sleep!" the voice went on, and it was rather a jolly,
good-natured voice Bunny thought. "Such a fine sleep as I've had!"
There was the sound of grunting, yawning, and stretching. Then the voice
cried in surprise:
"Why, we're moving!"
"Yes," answered Bunny, wondering who in the world Nutty, the tramp,
might be. "The train is going!"
"Well, well! And to think I slept through it!"
Bunny and Sue could see the ragged bundle in the corner getting up. It
came toward them, and in the light that came through the crack in the
freight car door the children saw that their fellow traveler was a very
ragged man--a regular tramp in fact.
On his part Nutty, as he called himself, stared with surprised eyes at
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
"Two kids!" cried the tramp. "Bless my ragged gloves! Two kids!"