A HAPPY REUNION
Mr. Black took the pail his wife gave him, and in the bottom, wrapped in
a piece of clean paper, he put some money. Then the cover was put on the
pail and the handle was slipped into Bruno's mouth.
"Milk, Bruno!" called the switchman again, and he opened the door and
out ran the dog.
"Will he go for it all alone?" asked Bunny.
"Yes," answered the switchman. "And he'll bring it back without spilling
a drop--that is, unless some other dog chases him or unless some bad
boys throw stones at him and make him run. Just wait a few minutes and
you'll see Bruno coming back with the milk."
"Take the children out on the porch where it's cooler," said Mrs. Black.
"I'll clear away the supper things."
"Can I help?" asked Sue, for she was used to helping her mother at home.
"Oh, no, thank you, dear," Mrs. Black answered. "You go out and see
Bruno do his tricks. He is quite a clever dog."
Bunny and Sue certainly thought so when a little later, as they sat on
the porch with Mr. Black, they saw the dog come along with the handle of
the milk pail in his mouth.
"He walks carefully so he won't spill it, doesn't he?" asked Sue.
"Yes, he is a very good dog," the switchman answered. "I don't remember
of his spilling the milk more than once or twice. He did it the first
time when he was just learning, and again it happened when another dog
chased him when Bruno was almost home with the bucket."
"Do the people that sell milk know Bruno is going to come for it?" Sue
asked, as Mrs. Black came out of the kitchen and took the pail from
Bruno, who stood carefully holding it. He had not spilled a drop.
"Yes, we get our milk at Mr. Hasting's place," answered the switchman.
"He keeps a cow, and they watch for Bruno every night."
"Can he do any more tricks?" asked Bunny. He and his sister were so
interested in the dog that they forgot about being far from their daddy
and mother.
"Yes, he can dance when I play the mouth organ," answered Mr. Black.
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "We heard the darkies on the cotton plantation play
the mouth organ and banjo and we saw 'em dance!" she went on.
"Well, I don't claim that my dog can dance as well as a plantation
darky," laughed the switchman. "But Bruno does pretty well. I'll get my
mouth organ."
Bruno barked and leaped about when he saw his master come out with the
mouth organ, and no sooner had the first few notes been blown than the
dog, without being told, stood up on his hind legs and pranced around.
He almost kept time to the music, and for a dog, he danced very well.
"Oh, I wish we had a dog like that!" sighed Bunny, when the dancing
animal, wagging his tail, came to Mr. Black to be petted after the
switchman stopped playing the mouth organ.
"Maybe I can teach Nutty's cat to dance," Sue said.
"I'm afraid not," said Mr. Black. "It is very hard to teach cats to do
tricks. I've tried more than once, but I never had any luck. But Bruno
is one of the smartest dogs I ever saw."
The children thought so, too, and after Bruno had done a few more
tricks, such as turning somersaults, and lying down and rolling over,
Mrs. Black came to say she thought it time for Bunny and Sue to go to
bed.
"I only have one spare room," said the switchman's wife. "That has a
large bed in it big enough for both of you. Don't you want to go to
sleep now?"
Bunny looked at Sue and Sue whispered something to her brother.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Black, seeing that something was "in the wind,"
as she remarked afterward.
"Sue says we can't go to bed without saying our prayers," replied Bunny,
"and mother isn't here--and--"
He faltered a moment, and it sounded as if he might be going to cry.
There was a trace of tears, too, in Sue's eyes, and Mrs. Black, guessing
that the children were beginning to feel lonesome and homesick, laughed
and said:
"Bless your hearts! I can hear you say your prayers as well as your
mother could. I used to have children of my own, but they are grown up
now. When they were your size I heard them say their prayers every
night. And I've got some night dresses for you, too!"
"You have?" exclaimed Bunny. He wondered where Mrs. Black could get
those, when she had no small children of her own.
"I have," said Mrs. Black. "While you were on the porch, watching Bruno
do tricks, I went next door and borrowed two clean night dresses for
you. They have five children at Mr. Sweeney's."
"Then if we can say our prayers and have night gowns, let's go to bed,"
proposed Sue. "Mother will come and get us in the morning," she went on.
"Yes, mother will come to-morrow," said Mrs. Black gently.
Soon Bunny and Sue were falling asleep in the big, clean bed, and they
did not have to fall very far to get to Slumberland, either, for they
were so tired they could hardly hold their eyes open to get undressed.
"I wonder if their mother will come in the morning?" asked Mrs. Black of
her husband, as she came out of the spare bedroom and softly closed the
door.
"Well, if she doesn't I have thought of a way to get word to her and the
father, too," the switchman said.
"How?" asked his wife.
"In the morning I'll have Mr. Sweeney telephone to the ticket agent at
the railroad station here. The agent can tell the main office."
"Oh, yes," agreed Mrs. Black. "And then word can be telegraphed all up
and down the line, and whatever station it was these children got into
the freight car, there Mrs. Brown will be waiting and she'll get the
word."
"That's it," Mr. Black said.
But before he could put his kind plan into operation Mr. and Mrs. Brown
had already started a movement of their own looking to the finding of
the lost children.
Mr. Brown was very much surprised and not a little frightened when he
met his wife on the station platform, where they had alighted to change
cars, and was told that Bunny and Sue were missing.
"Where did you last see them?" asked Mr. Brown.
"Down by the line of freight cars," Mrs. Brown answered. And then she
thought of something that she had not thought of before. "Why," she
exclaimed, "the freight cars are gone! I remember now that the noise the
engine made when it coupled on woke me from my doze. Oh, do you think
Bunny and Sue are on the freight train?"
"I'm beginning to think so," answered Mr. Brown. "You say the colored
boys couldn't find them around here, there has been no accident and
neither Bunny nor Sue came up to the village after me. They must be in
one of the freight cars and are being hauled away."
"But how could they get into one of those high cars?" asked his wife.
"Oh, Bunny can do almost anything, and Sue isn't far behind him.
Probably he found a box to stand on."
"Suppose we take a look," suggested Mr. Parker, the gentleman who had
brought Mr. Brown to the station in the automobile. The three of them
walked down the tracks where the freight cars had stood before being
hauled away.
"There's a box!" exclaimed Mr. Brown, pointing to one near the track.
"It's just about high enough for a person to get from it into an open
boxcar."
"And here are the marks of their feet!" cried Mrs. Brown, pointing to
the very footprints of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, made by the
children in the soft dirt between the tracks. "Oh, they are in that
train! How shall we get them?" she cried.
"Well, now that we know this much, it will be an easy matter to
telegraph on ahead and have the train searched," said Mr. Parker. "I'll
go and see the train dispatcher here."
It was now getting late, and soon the train arrived on which the Brown
family should have made the remainder of their trip to Florida. But of
course daddy and mother would not travel on until they had found Bunny
and Sue. So they let the train go, and went to the ticket office to find
the name of the first station where the freight train might stop, in
order that a telegram could be sent to have it searched.
It was quite dark when the telegram had been sent, and Mr. and Mrs.
Brown were invited to stay at the home of Mr. Parker for supper, and to
remain there all night, if necessary.
There were some hours of anxious waiting, and at last a telegram came
back to Mr. Brown saying that the train crew of the freight had looked
into every empty car, but the children had not been found. In one car,
however, were some empty nut boxes and pieces of candles.
"That's the car they were in!" declared Mr. Parker.
"But where are they now?" asked the distracted mother. "Oh, where are
Bunny and Sue?"
"They must have got out when the train stopped," said Daddy Brown.
"Then the thing to do," went on Mr. Parker, "is to find out the names of
all the stations and water tanks where stops, were made, and telegraph
there."
So after some work the railroad people found out the different regular
stops the freight train had made, but at none of these places were there
any traces of Bunny or Sue.
"Then a water tank stop is our only hope," Mr. Parker said. "Some of the
tanks are in lonely places, and if the children got out there they would
be taken in charge by the pumpman or switchman. He would have no way of
telegraphing back. We shall have to wait until morning."
You can imagine that Mrs. Brown did not sleep much that night. She did
not sleep as well as did Bunny and Sue. But in the morning a telegram,
sent by Mr. Black through Mr. Sweeney, was received, telling just where
the missing children were.
"They're found!" cried Daddy Brown, as he came upstairs to his wife's
room, waving the telegram over his head. "They're all right!"
And a little later he and his wife were on the first train going to the
village where Bunny and Sue had been so kindly cared for all night.
"Oh, Momsie!" cried Sue, as she rushed into the dear arms. "Oh, Momsie!"
"Well, Bunny boy, you had quite an adventure!" said his father, as he
clasped the little chap close to him.