AT ORANGE BEACH
The happy reunion had taken place on the platform of the little railroad
station just outside the village where Mr. Black, the switchman, lived.
As soon as telegrams had been sent and received, Mr. Black took Bunny
and Sue to the station to wait for the arrival of the train carrying
their father and mother to them.
Coming in a passenger car, and not on a freight train in which the
children had ridden, Mr. and Mrs. Brown soon arrived at the place. And
then you can imagine how happy every one was.
"But whatever possessed you two children to climb into a freight car and
let yourselves be carried away?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she hugged Bunny,
while Mr. Brown took Sue in his arms.
"We wanted to get the kitten, Mother," Sue explained. "And he's at Mrs.
Black's now, and please can't we take him with us to Florida?"
"It's Nutty's cat," objected Bunny.
"But he ran away and left him," went on Sue. "Please, Mother, can't we
take Toddle with us?"
"Who is Nutty?" asked Mr. Brown.
Then, by turns, the children told the whole story, which included how
they had met the queer old tramp in the boxcar.
"And you ought to see Bruno do tricks!" cried Bunny, when it came his
turn to tell something.
"Who is Bruno, another tramp?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"He's a dog!" exclaimed Bunny. "And you ought to see him dance!"
"You children seem to have had a better time than your mother or I had,"
said Mr. Brown, after he had thanked the kind switchman for the care he
and his wife had given Bunny and Sue. "We were certainly worried about
you."
Mr. and Mrs. Brown paid a little visit to Mrs. Black to thank her, and
then it was time for the travelers to resume their journey to Orange
Beach, where they expected to spend some time with Mr. Halliday, with
whom Daddy Brown had business to talk over.
"Can't we take Toddle?" begged Sue again, as she held Nutty's little cat
in her arms.
"No, my dear," answered her mother. "We could not take him to Florida
with us."
"I'll keep him here with my dog and cat," offered Mrs. Black.
"And when I see Nutty, as I often do," added the switchman, "I'll tell
him where he can get his cat again."
"Well, I s'pose he will want Toddle," sighed Sue. So the pussy was left
behind.
Once more Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were on the train traveling.
This time they were in a sleeping car, in which, at night, beds were
made from the seats.
"This is better than riding in a freight car, isn't it?" asked Sue's
mother.
"Yes," answered the little girl, turning away from the window, out of
which she was looking at the scenery. "But we had a pretty good time
with Nutty; didn't we, Bunny?"
"Yes, we did," answered the little boy. "And the nuts were good."
There was still for the party an all night ride before the Brown family
would arrive at Orange Beach, which was in the southwestern part of
Florida.
"Do the orange trees grow right near the ocean, Mother?" asked Bunny,
when they had been talking for some time about the place to which they
were going.
"Not exactly," his father answered. "I believe oranges do not grow so
well too close to salt water. At any rate Mr. Halliday's orange grove is
inland a few miles. It is on the banks of a river, but the river flows
into the ocean, or rather, into the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the
ocean."
"Can we go swimming?" Sue wanted to know.
"You can't if there's any alligators there," Bunny said. "Anyhow, you
can't go in the water till I catch all the alligators."
"If there's alligators I'm not going in," declared Sue.
"Oh, I don't believe there will be any," Mrs. Brown said, with a laugh.
And so with talk and laughter over what they might find at Orange Beach,
the time passed until it was time to go to bed.
The colored porter made up the clean, white beds, and Bunny and Sue were
glad enough to get in theirs when the time came. They had slept pretty
well at Mrs. Black's home, but they were still tired from their bumping,
jolting journey in the rough freight car.
So soundly did Bunny and Sue sleep that even when there was a little
accident they did not awaken. During the night the train on which they
rode had a little collision with an empty freight car which was standing
on a side track. The freight car was smashed, but hardly any damage was
done to the passenger train, except that the passengers were awakened by
being jolted. That is, all but Bunny and Sue. They slept through it.
"Is any one hurt?" asked Mr. Brown, as soon as quiet was restored and
it was found that the express train could go on.
"A couple of tramps who were sleeping in the empty freight car were
hurt," the conductor said. "We've sent them to the hospital."
"Oh! Tramps!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, who heard the talk. "I hope one of
them wasn't Nutty, who was so kind to the children, even though he did
jump off and leave them alone. I hope Nutty wasn't hurt!"
"Nutty could hardly have got so far south as this since he left the
children," Mr. Brown said. "I don't believe he was one of the tramps
hurt in this collision."
Next morning, when Bunny and Sue awakened, they were told of the
collision in the night, but nothing was said to them of the two tramps
who were hurt for fear they might think one was Nutty. But neither was.
There was enough else to take the attention of the little boy and girl,
for they were now in the real South, and they began to notice palm trees
for the first time.
"They look just like pictures of cocoanut trees!" exclaimed Bunny,
gazing from the car window.
"Wouldn't Nutty be glad if he was here and could gather cocoanuts!"
cried Sue. "Can we pick cocoanuts, Daddy?"
"I hardly think so, where we are going," Mr. Brown answered. "I think
oranges will be enough for you to pick for a while."
"That and catching alligators," added Bunny, who never seemed to stop
thinking of these scaly creatures, which Sue did not like at all.
On and on went the train, and the children were just about getting tired
of so much travel when they saw their father and mother beginning to
gather up the hand baggage.
"Are we there?" asked Bunny excitedly.
"Almost," his father answered.
A little later a trainman called:
"Orange Beach! Orange Beach!"
"Hurray! We're here!" cried Bunny.
"And I'm going to pick orange blossoms!" echoed Sue.