OFF FOR COLORADO
It was finally decided that it would be best not to set out for
Colorado until the middle of March. There were many things to be
arranged and provided for, and Mr. March did not wish to leave the
people of his parish too suddenly. Afterward he wished that he had
gone away immediately, as soon as his decision was made; for the ten
weeks that he waited were merely ten long weeks of good-bye.
Everybody loved him, and was sorry he was going; and there was not a
day that somebody did not come in to hear the whole story over
again, why he was going, when he was going, where he was going, and
all about it. At last Mrs. March grew so tired of talking it all
over and over, that she said to people: "I really can't talk any
more about it. We are not going till the fifteenth of March, but I
wish it were to-morrow." After the first two or three weeks, Rob and
Nelly lost much of their interest in talking it over; two months
ahead seemed to them just as far off as two years; and they did not
more than half believe they would ever really go. But when the
packing began, all their old interest and enthusiasm returned, and
they could not keep quiet a moment. Nelly's great anxiety was to
decide whether she would better carry Mrs. Napoleon in her arms all
the way or let her go in a trunk. She said to her mother that she
really thought Mrs. Napoleon would go safer in her arms than
anywhere else. "You see, mamma, I should never lay her down a single
minute, and how could any thing happen to her then? But in the
trunk she would be shaken and jolted all the time." The truth was,
Nelly was very proud of Mrs. Napoleon, and she secretly had thought
to herself, "I expect there'll be a great many little girls in the
cars: in four whole days, there must be; and they would all like to
see such a beautiful doll."
Mrs. March understood this feeling in Nelly perfectly well, and it
amused her very much to see how Nelly was trying to deceive herself
about it.
"But, Nelly," she said, "the cars will be full of cinders and dust,
and they will be sure to stick to the wax. Her face would get dirty
in a single day, and you can't wash it as you do Pocahontas's. Don't
you think you'd better carry Pocahontas instead?"
Pocahontas was Nelly's next best doll: she was the big one I told
you about; the one that was almost the size of a real live baby; the
one which was so big that it made Mrs. March first think of using
her father's great stockings to hang up for Christmas stockings for
the children.
"Oh, mamma!" said Nelly: "Pocahontas is too heavy; and I don't care
half so much for her as for dear beautiful Josephine. I shouldn't
care very much if Pocahontas did get broken, but if any thing were
to happen to the Empress it would be dreadful. Do let me carry her,
mamma. I'll make her a beautiful waterproof cloak just like mine;
and she can wear two veils just as you do on the water."
"Very well, Nelly, you can do as you like," replied her mother; "but
I warn you that you will wish the doll out of the way a great many
times before we reach our journey's end; and I am afraid her looks
will be entirely spoiled."
"Oh, no, mamma!" replied Nelly, confidently. "You'll see you haven't
the least idea what good care I shall take of her."
At last the day came when the last box was shut and nailed and
corded, the last leather bag locked, the last bundle rolled up and
strapped; and Mr. and Mrs. March, and Rob and Nelly, and little
Deacon Plummer and his good little wife, all stood on the doorsteps
of the parsonage waiting for the stage, which was to carry them ten
miles to the railway station where they were to take the cars. Mrs.
Napoleon really looked very pretty in her long waterproof cloak; it
was of bright blue lined with scarlet; and she wore a dark blue hat
with a little bit of scarlet feather in it, to match her cloak; and
she had a dark blue veil, two thicknesses of it, pinned very tight
over her face and hat; Nelly held her hugged tight in her arms, and
never put her down.
"Oh, my! before I'd be bothered with a doll to carry," exclaimed
Rob, looking at Nelly,--"leave her behind. Give her to Mary Pratt.
You won't care for dolls out in Colorado. I know you won't."
Nelly gave Rob a look which would have melted the heart of an older
boy; but Rob was not to be melted.
"Oh, you needn't look that way!" he said. "A doll's a plague: I
heard mamma tell you so too, so now, there," he added triumphantly.
Nelly walked away in silence, and only hugged Mrs. Napoleon tighter,
and Mr. March, who had been watching the scene, said to his wife:
"Look at that motherly little thing. The doll's the same to her as a
baby to you."
"Yes," said Mrs. March, "but Rob's right after all. It'll be a great
bother having that wax doll along; but I thought it was better to
let Nelly see for herself. I dare say she'll forget it, and leave it
at the first place where we change cars."
"Not she," said Mr. March. "You don't know Nelly half so well as I
do, Sarah, if she is your own child. Nelly'd carry that doll round
the world and never lay it down."
"We'll see," said Mrs. March, laughing. Mr. March was a little
vexed at his wife for saying this; and he privately resolved that he
would keep an eye on Mrs. Napoleon himself all through the journey,
and see that she was not left behind at any station.
Four days and four nights in the cars, going, going, going every
minute, night and day, dark and light, asleep and awake: nobody has
any idea what such a journey is till he takes it. Poor old Deacon
Plummer and Mrs. Plummer were so tired by the end of the second day
that they looked about ninety years old.
"Deary me!" Mrs. Plummer said a dozen times a day. "It's a great
deal farther than I thought."
"I told you, Elizy, it was four days and four nights," the Deacon
always replied; "but I suppose you didn't sense it no more'n I did.
Nobody couldn't believe the joltin' 'd be so wearin'. I feel's if my
bones was all jelly in my skin," and the poor old man moved as if
they were. He reeled when he walked; and, at each lurch the cars
gave, he would catch hold of anything or anybody who happened to be
near him. If it were a person, he would apologize most humbly: but
if the car gave another lurch, even while he was apologizing, he
would catch hold again, just as hard as before, at which the person
would walk away quite offended; and very soon everybody in the car
tried to keep out of the old man's way, they were so afraid of being
violently laid hold of by him.
Rob and Nelly did not mind the jolting; did not mind the lurches the
cars gave; did not mind the cinders, the dust, the noise. They were
having the best time they ever had in their lives. For the first two
days of their journey, they were in what is called "The
drawing-room," in the sleeping-car. I wonder if I could make those
of you who have never been in a sleeping-car understand about this
little room. I will try.
Most of the sleeping-cars have merely shelves along the sides in the
place where the seats are in the ordinary day-cars: curtains are
hung in front of these shelves, and they are parted off from each
other like the shelves in a long cupboard. In the daytime, these
shelves are folded away and fastened up against the walls, and seats
left below them. At night when people are ready to go to bed, the
shelves are let down, and the curtains put up in front of them, and
each person climbs up on his shelf, and undresses behind the
curtain, and goes to bed. I forgot to say that a very good little
bed is made up on each shelf. A man who has the care of the car, and
who is called the porter, makes these beds. This is the way it is in
nearly all the sleeping-cars. But there are some cars which have,
besides these, a nice little room walled off at one end. It has
seats for two people on each side; and these seats are made into
comfortable beds at night. It has two windows which open on the
outside of the car, and two which open on the narrow aisle of the
car; these four windows are all your own, if you have hired the
whole little room for yourself. You can have them either open or
shut, just as you like, and nobody else has any right to say any
thing about it, which is a great comfort; in the ordinary car, you
know there is always somebody just behind you or just before you who
is either too hot or too cold, and wants the windows shut when you
want them open, or open when you want them shut. This little room
has a door at each end of it. One opens into the car where the rest
of the people are sitting. The other opens into a nice little closet
where there is a washbowl and water, and you can take a bath
comfortably. At night the porter comes and hangs up curtains across
these doors, because they have glass in the tops of them; then he
draws the curtains at your windows; then he lights a lamp which
hangs in the middle of the ceiling in your room: and there you are
shut up in as cunning a little bedroom as you would ever want to
see; and almost as snug and private as you could be in your own
bedroom. You can undress and go to bed comfortably; and, unless the
jolting of the car keeps you awake, you can sleep all night as
soundly as you would at home.
Rob and Nelly were delighted with this little room. So was Mrs.
March. She hung up their cloaks and hats on the hooks, and took out
their books and papers, and made the little room look like home.
Nelly propped Mrs. Napoleon up in one corner of one of the red
velvet arm-chairs, and took off her blue veils, for there seemed to
be no dust at all.
"I wish I'd brought Pocahontas too," said Nelly: "there is so much
room, and dolls do look so nice travelling like other people."
"People!" laughed Rob. "Dolls ain't people."
"They are too," said Nelly. "People are men and women, and there are
boy dolls and girl dolls and women dolls and men dolls."
"Mamma, are dolls people?" asked Rob, vehemently. "Nell says they
are, and I say they ain't. They ain't: are they?"
"Not live people," said Mrs. March: "Nell didn't mean that."
"Oh, no!" said Nelly; "but they're play people, and you can't be
sure they don't know any thing just because they don't speak. I
could go a whole year without speaking if I tried to."
"I believe you could," laughed Mrs. March; "but Rob couldn't."
"Not I," said Rob. "What's the use? I like to talk. Nell's a
dumb-cat: that's what she is."
"I can talk if I've a mind to," retorted Nelly; "but I don't want
to; that is, not very often: I don't see the use in it."
This is the way it always was with Rob and Nelly. Dearly as they
loved each other, they never thought alike about any thing: but for
that very reason they did each other good; much more than if they
had been just alike.
When it was time for breakfast or for dinner, the black porter,
whose name was Charley, brought in a little square table and set it
up as firm as he could between the seats. Then Mr. March lifted up
the big luncheon-basket on one of the chairs, and Mrs. March took
out her spirit-lamp, and they had great fun cooking. There was a
saucepan which fitted over the spirit-lamp, and the flame of the
spirit-lamp was so large that water boiled in this saucepan in a
very few minutes. Mrs. March could make tea or chocolate or coffee:
she could boil eggs, or warm up beef soup; then, after they had
eaten all they wanted, they heated more water in the same saucepan
and washed their dishes in it. At first, this seemed dreadful to
Nelly, who was a very neat little girl.
"Oh, mamma," she said, "how horrid to cook in the same pan you wash
dishes in!" But Mrs. March laughed at her, and told her that when
people were travelling they could not afford to be so particular.
It was only for the first two days and nights of their journey that
they had this comfortable little room. On the morning of the third
day they reached Kansas City, and there they had to change cars.
They sat in a large and crowded waiting-room, while Mr. March went
to see about the tickets. Nelly and Rob looked with great
astonishment on every thing they saw. They seemed already to have
come into a new world. The people looked strange, and a great many
of them were speaking German. There were whole families--father,
mother, and perhaps half-a-dozen little children--sitting on the
railway platforms, on big chests, which were tied up with strong
ropes. They had great feather-beds, too, tied in bundles and bulging
out all round the ropes. Their faces were very red, and their
clothes were old and patched: if Nelly had met them in the lanes of
Mayfield, she would have taken them for beggars; but here they were
travelling just like herself, going the same way too, for she
watched several of them getting into the same train. Then there were
groups of men in leather clothes, with their boots reaching up to
their knees, and powder-horns slung across their shoulders. They all
carried rifles: some of them had two or three; and one of them, as
he stepped on the platform, threw down a dead deer; another carried
a splendid pair of antlers. Nelly took hold of Rob's hand and walked
very cautiously nearer the dead deer.
"Oh, Rob!" she said, "it's a real deer. There is a picture of one in
my Geography with just such horns as these."
Nelly was carrying Mrs. Napoleon hugged up very tight in her arms;
but she had not observed that, in the jostling of the crowd, Mrs.
Napoleon had somehow turned her head round as if she were looking
backward over Nelly's shoulder. Neither had she observed that two
little girls were following closely behind her, jabbering German as
fast as they could, and pointing to the doll. Presently, she felt
her gown pulled gently. She turned round, and there were the two
little girls, both with outstretched hands, talking as fast as
magpies, and much more unintelligibly. Each of them took hold of
Nelly's gown again, and made signs to her that she should let them
take the doll. They looked so eager that it seemed as if they would
snatch the doll out of her hands: the words they spoke sounded so
thick and strange that it half frightened Nelly. "Oh, dear me, Rob!"
she exclaimed; "do tell them to go away. Go away, good little
girls, go away!" she said, pleadingly. "I can't let you take her."
"Clear out!" said Rob, roughly, taking hold of one of them by the
shoulder and giving her a shove. No sooner had the words passed his
lips than he felt himself lifted by the nape of his neck as if he
had been a little puppy: he was in the hand's of a great red-faced
German, who looked like a scarlet giant to poor Rob, as he gazed up
in his face. This was the father of the two little girls; he had
seen the shove that Rob gave his little Wilhelmina, and he was in a
great rage; he shook Rob back and forth, and cuffed his ears, all
the time talking very loud in German. All he said was:--
"You are a good-for-nothing: I will teach you manners, that you do
not push little girls who are doing you no harm;" but it sounded in
the German language like something very dreadful.
Poor Nelly clung to him with one hand, and tried to stop his beating
Rob.
"Oh, please don't whip my brother, sir!" she cried. "He did not mean
to hurt the little girl. She was going to snatch my doll away from
me."
But the angry German shook Nelly off as if she had been a little fly
that lighted on his arm. Rob did not cry out, nor speak a word. He
was horribly frightened, but he was too angry to cry. He said
afterwards:--
"I thought he was going to kill me; but I just made up my mind I
wouldn't speak a single word if he did."
All this that I have been telling you didn't take much more than a
minute; but it seemed to poor Nelly a thousand years. She was
crying, and the little German girls were crying too: they did not
mean to do any harm, and they did not want the little boy whipped.
Some rough men and women who were looking on began to laugh, and
one man called out:--
"Go it, Dutchy, go it!"
Mr. March, who was just walking up the platform, heard the noise;
and, when he looked up to see what it meant, what should he see but
his own Rob held away up in the air, in the powerful grip of this
tall man, and being soundly cuffed about the ears. Mr. March sprang
forward, and, taking hold of Rob with one hand, caught the angry
man's uplifted arm in the other.
"Stop, sir," he said; "this is my little boy. What has he done?
Leave him to me. What has he done?"
"Nothing, papa," called poor Rob, the tears coming into his eyes at
the sight of a protector; "nothing except push that ugly little
yellow-haired girl: I guess she is his; she was going to snatch
Nell's doll."
The German set Rob down; and, turning towards Mr. March, began to
pour out a torrent of words. Luckily, Mr. March understood most of
what he said, and could speak to him in his own language. So he
explained to him that his little daughters had tried to take Nelly's
doll away from her, and that Rob had only intended to protect his
sister, as was quite right and proper he should do. As soon as the
man understood this, he turned at once to his little girls who stood
by crying, and asked them a short question in German.
They sobbed out, "ja, ja" (that means "yes, yes"). In less than a
minute he caught up first the elder one, just as he had caught up
Rob, and boxed her ears; then the smaller one, and cuffed her also;
and set them both down on the ground, as if he were used to swinging
children up in the air and boxing their ears every day. Then he
turned to Rob, and taking him by the hand, said to Mr. March,--
"Explain to your little boy that I ask his pardon. He was doing the
right thing: he is a gentleman; and I ask that he accept this horn
from me and from my very bad little girls."
So saying, he took out of a great wallet that hung across his back a
beautiful little powder horn. It was a horn of the chamois, the
beautiful wild deer that lives in the mountains in Switzerland. It
was as black as ebony, and had a fine pattern cut on it, like a
border round the top; then it had a scarlet cord and silver buckles,
to fasten it across the shoulders. Rob's eyes glistened with delight
as he stretched out his hand for it.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" he said. "Oh, papa! please thank him,
and tell him I don't mind the whipping a bit now. And," he added,
"please tell him, too, that I didn't mean to shove his little girl
hard, only just to keep her off Nell."
Mr. March interpreted Rob's speech to the German, who nodded
pleasantly and walked off, leading his two little sobbing children
by the hand. He was so tall that the little girls looked like little
elves by his side, and he looked like the picture of the Giant with
his seven-league boots on. When Rob turned to show his beautiful
powder horn to Nelly, she was nowhere to be seen.
"Why, where is Nell, papa?" he exclaimed.
Mr. March looked around anxiously, but could see nothing of her.
They hurried back into the waiting-room, and there to their great
relief they saw Nelly sitting by her mother's side. Rob rushed up to
her, holding up his powder horn, and exclaiming,--
"Why, Nell, what made you come away? That old thrasher was a
splendid fellow: see what he gave me, as soon as papa made him
understand; and he cuffed those girls well, I tell you,--most as
hard as he did me. Why, Nell, what's the matter?" Rob suddenly
observed that Nelly was crying.
"Don't talk to Nelly just now," said Mrs. March: "she is in
trouble." And she put her arm round Nelly tenderly.
"But what is it, mamma?" exclaimed Rob; "tell me. Is she hurt?"
"What is it, Sarah?" said Mr. March. By this time Nelly was sobbing
hard, and her head was buried on her mother's shoulder. Mrs. March
pointed to Nelly's lap: there lay a shapeless and dirty little
bundle, which Nelly held grasped feebly in one hand. It was the
remains of Mrs. Napoleon. The blue waterproof was all torn and
grimed with dirt; a broken wax arm hung out at one side; and when
Rob cautiously lifted a fold of the waterproof, there came into view
a shocking sight: poor Mrs. Napoleon's face, or rather what had been
her face, without a single feature to be seen in it,--just a round
ball of dirty, crumbling wax, with the pretty yellow curls all
matted in it. Mr. March could not help smiling at the sight;
luckily, Nelly did not see him.
"Why, how did that happen?" he said.
"What a shame!" exclaimed Rob. "Say, Nell, you shall have my powder
horn;" and he thrust it into her hand. Nelly shook her head and
pushed it away, but did not speak. Her heart was too full.
Then Mrs. March told them in a low tone how it had happened. When
Nelly caught hold of the German's arm, trying to stop his beating
Rob, she had forgotten all about Mrs. Napoleon, and let her fall to
the ground. Nobody saw her, and, in the general scuffle, the doll
had been trampled under foot. Really, if one had not been so sorry
for Nelly, one could not help laughing at the spectacle. The scarlet
feather and the bright blue cloak, and the golden curls, and the
dark blue veils, and the red and white wax, all mixed up together
so that you would have hardly known that it was a doll at
all,--except that one blue eye was left whole, with a little bit of
the red cheek under it. This made the whole wreck look still worse.
"Our first railroad accident," said Mrs. March, laughingly. Nelly
sobbed harder than ever.
"Hush," said Mr. March, in a low tone to his wife. "Don't make light
of it."
"Nelly, dear," he said, taking hold of the doll gently, "shall not
papa throw the poor dolly away? You don't want to look at her any
more."
"Oh, no, no!" said Nelly, lifting up the bundle, and hugging it
tighter.
"Very well, dear," replied her father, "you shall keep it as long as
you like. But let me pin poor dolly up tight, so that nobody can see
how she is hurt."
Nelly gave the doll up without a word, and her kind papa rolled the
little waterproof cloak tight round the body and arms; then he
doubled up the blue veil and pinned it many thicknesses thick all
round the head; and then he took a clean dark-blue and white silk
handkerchief of his own and put outside all the veil, and made it
into a snug little parcel, that nobody would have known was a dolly
at all.
"There, Nelly," he said, putting it in her lap, "there is dolly, all
rolled up, so that nobody can look at her."
Nelly took the sad little bundle, and laid it across her knees.
"Can she ever be mended, papa?" she said.
"No, dear, I think not," said Mr. March; "I think the sooner you put
her out of your sight the better; but now we must go into the cars."
Poor Nelly! she walked slowly along, carrying the blue and white
package as if it were a coffin,--as indeed it was, a kind of coffin,
for a very dead dolly.
As they were going into the car, Mr. March said to his wife:--
"There is no drawing-room in the sleeping-car which goes through
to-day. I have had to take two sections."
Mrs. March had never travelled in a sleeping-car before, and she did
not know how much nicer the little room was than the "sections." So
she replied: "They'll do just as well, won't they?"
"I think you will not like them quite so well," replied Mr. March;
"you cannot be by yourself with the children. But it is only for one
night; we will make the best of it. There are our sections, one
right opposite the other; so you will not have strangers opposite
you."
They put their lunch-basket and bags and bundles down on the floor,
and sat down on the two sofas, facing each other. Nelly put her blue
and white parcel in one corner of the sofa, lay down with her head
on it, and was soon fast asleep. There were tears on her cheeks.
"Poor child!" said Mr. March; "this is her first real grief."
"I'm glad I ain't a girl," said Rob, bluntly; "I don't believe in
dolls, do you, papa?"
Mr. March answered Rob's question by another.
"Do you believe in babies, Rob?"
"Why, of course, papa! What a funny question! I think babies are
real nice. They're alive, you know."
"Yes," said his father; "but dolls are just the same to little girls
that babies are to grown-up women. Nelly felt just like a mother to
Mrs. Napoleon. She was a very good little mother too."
"Yes," said Mrs. March; "she was. I am very sorry for her."
"I'm real glad Deacon Plummer and Mrs. Plummer weren't here," said
Rob.
"Why, why, Rob?" said his mother.
(Deacon and Mrs. Plummer had left the train at Quincy to spend a
week with a son of theirs who lived there. They were to join the
Marches later, in Denver.)
"Oh, because she'd have said: 'This is--cough--cough--providential.'
What does providential mean, anyhow, papa? You never say it. Does it
make you cough and sneeze? Mrs. Plummer is always saying it about
every thing."
Mr. and Mrs. March laughed so hard at this they could not speak for
some minutes. Then Mr. March said:--
"You must not speak so, Rob;" but, before he had finished his
sentence, he had to stop again, and laugh harder than before.
"Deacon and Mrs. Plummer are going to be the greatest help to us,
and they are as good and kind as they can be."
"Yes, I like her crullers first-rate," said Rob. "What does
providential mean, papa?"
Mr. March looked puzzled.
"I hardly know how to tell you, Rob. Mrs. Plummer means by it that
God made the thing happen, whatever it is that she is speaking of,
on purpose for her accommodation: that is one way of using the word.
I do not believe that doctrine: so I never use the word, because it
would be understood to mean something I don't believe in."
"I should think God'd be too busy," said Rob, as if he were thinking
very hard; "he couldn't remember everybody, could he?"
"Not in that way, I think," said Mr. March; "but in another way I
think it is true that he never forgets anybody. It is something like
my garden, Rob. You know I've got parsnips, and carrots, and beets,
and potatoes,--oh! a dozen of things, all growing together. Now I
never forget my garden. I know when it is time to have the corn
hoed; and I know, when there hasn't been any rain for a long time,
that I must water it. But I don't think about each particular carrot
or parsnip in the bed: I could hardly count them if I tried. Yet I
mean to take very good care of my garden, and never let them suffer
for any thing; and if any one of my vegetables were to be thirsty,
if it could speak, it ought to ask me to give it some water."
I am afraid Rob did not listen attentively to this long explanation.
He never thought of any one thing very long, as you know. And he was
busy now watching all the people pour into the car. There was a
little girl, only about Nelly's age, who had to be carried on a
little mattress. She could not walk. Something was the matter with
her spine. Her father and mother were with her. And there was a lady
with a sweet face, who was too ill to sit up at all. The sofas in
her "section" were made up into a bed as soon as she came in; she
had a doctor and a nurse with her.
Then there were several couples, who had two or three children with
them; and one poor lady who was travelling all alone with five
children, and the largest only twelve years old; and there were some
Englishmen with guns and fishing-rods and spy-glasses and almost
every thing you could think of that could be cased in leather and
carried on a journey,--one of them even had a bath-tub, a big, round
bath-tub, in addition to every thing else. He had a man-servant with
him who carried all these things, or else he never could have got on
at all. The man's name was Felix. That is a Latin word which means
"happy," but I don't think this poor fellow was happy at all. He was
a Frenchman. I don't know how he came to be an Englishman's servant,
but I suppose the Englishman had lived a great while in France, and
had found him there. Felix's master always talked French with him;
so Felix had not learned much English, and it would have made you
laugh to see him clap his hand to his head when anybody said any
thing he could not understand. He would pound his head as if he
could drive the meaning in that way; and then he would pull his thin
hair; and then sometimes he would turn round and round as fast as a
top two or three times. When he came into the cars loaded down with
the guns and the rods and the bundles and the bath-tub, his master
would tell him to put them down in the corner; then the porter would
come along and say:--
"Look here! you can't have all these things in here," and then Felix
would say:--
"Vat dat you say, sare?"
Then the porter would repeat it; and Felix would say again:--
"Vat dat you say, sare?"
And then the porter would get angry, and pick up some of the things,
and lay them on Felix's back, and tell him to carry them off; and
there Felix would stand stock-still, with the things on his back,
till his master appeared. Then he would pour out all his story of
his troubles in French, and the Englishman would be very angry with
the porter, and say that he would have his things where he pleased;
and the porter would say he should not. He must put them under his
berth or in the baggage car; and poor Felix would stand all the
while looking first in the porter's face and then in his master's,
just like a dog that is waiting for his master to tell him which way
to run for a thing. Great drops of perspiration would stand on his
forehead, and his face would be as red as if it were August: he was
so worried and confused. Poor Felix! he was one of the drollest
sights in the whole journey.
The people kept pouring in.
"Mamma, where are they all to sleep?" whispered Rob.
"I'm sure I don't know, Rob," she answered.
At last the train moved off, and the different families arranged
themselves in their own sections, and it seemed a little less
crowded. But there were not seats enough for all the children, and
some of them were obliged to sit on the floor in the middle of the
aisle. The lady who had five children had only engaged one berth:
that is half of a section.
"How do you expect to manage about sleeping?" said Mrs. March to
her.
"Oh, that's easy enough," said she. "We've slept so all the way from
New York. I put the three little ones crosswise at the foot, and the
two others lie 'longside of me."
Mrs. March did not reply to this; but she thought to herself, "I'd
like to see those babies after they are all packed away for the
night."
At noon the train stopped for the passengers to take their dinner at
a little station. More than half the people in the car went out.
Then the porter--the new porter's name was Ben--brought in little
tables and put them up between the seats for the people who had
their own lunch-baskets and did not want to go out to dinner. In the
next section to the Marches were a man and his wife with three
children. They had a big coffee-pot full of coffee, and one tin cup
to drink it from. They had loaves of brown bread, a big cheese, and
a bunch of onions. As soon as they opened their basket, the smell of
the onions and the cheese filled the car.
"Ugh!" said Rob; "where does this horrible smell come from?"
Luckily the people who owned the cheese and the onions did not hear
him, and before he had time to say any more, his mother whispered to
him to be quiet; but Rob's face was one of such disgust, that nobody
could have looked at him without seeing that he was very
uncomfortable. Mrs. March felt as uncomfortable as Rob did: but she
knew that those people had just the same right to have cheese and
onions on their table that she had to have chocolate and orange
marmalade on hers; so she opened one of the windows wide to let in
fresh air, and went on with her dinner. As soon as the spirit-lamp
began to burn, the children in the next section exclaimed aloud:
"Oh, what is that? what is that?" They had never seen any thing of
the kind before. The two eldest, who were boys, jumped down from
their seat, each carrying a big piece of bread and of cheese, and
came crowding around Mrs. March to look at the lamp. Mrs. March was
a very gentle and polite woman, but she could not help being vexed
at these ill-mannered children.
"Go away, little boys," she said: "I am very busy now. I am afraid
you will upset the lamp, and get burned."
Then she looked at the father and mother, hoping they would call
their children back. But they took no notice of them: they went on
eating their bread and cheese and onions; and, at every fresh onion
they sliced, a fresh whiff of the strong, disagreeable odor went
through the car. Mr. March had been out to the eating-house, to get
some milk. Mrs. March had brought a big square glass bottle, which
held three pints; and, whenever they stopped at an eating-house, Mr.
March bought fresh milk to fill it, and this was a great addition to
their bill of fare. He came into the car at this moment, bringing
the milk bottle, and as soon as he opened the car door, he
exclaimed, as Rob had done:--
"Ugh!" but in a second more he saw what had made the odor, and he
said no more. As he handed the milk to his wife, she said in a low
tone:--
"Could we go anywhere else to eat our dinner, Robert?"
Mr. March looked all around the car and shook his head.
"No," he said; "every seat is taken, and at any moment the people
may come back. It is nearly time now for the train to start. We
will make a hasty meal; perhaps we can do better at night."
Rob and Nelly were very quiet. They did not like the two strange
boys who stood close to their seat staring at them, and at every
thing which was on the table. Rob whispered to Nelly:--
"'Tain't half so nice as it was in the little room: is it, Nell?"
"No," said Nelly.
"Shouldn't you think they'd be ashamed to stare so?" continued Rob,
making a gesture over his shoulder towards their uninvited guests.
"Yes," said Nelly. "It's real rude."
Still the boys stood immovable at Mrs. March's knee. At last one of
them lifted his head, and, saying "What keeps that thing on there?"
pointed to the saucepan standing on the little tripod of the lamp.
Just at that moment, his brother accidentally hit his arm and made
his hand go farther than he meant: it hit the saucepan and knocked
it over; down went the spirit-lamp, all the alcohol ran out and took
fire, and for a few minutes there was a great hubbub I assure you.
Mr. March seized their heavy woollen lap-robe, and threw it on the
floor above the burning alcohol, and stamped out the flames; and
nobody was burned. But the nice chocolate was all lost; it went
running down a little muddy stream, way out to the door; and the
tumbler which had the butter in it fell to the floor and was broken;
and the nice slices of white bread which Mrs. March had just cut
were all soaked in alcohol and spoiled; and altogether it was a
wretched mess, and all because two little boys had not been taught
how to behave properly. They ran off as hard as they could go, you
may be sure, back into their own seat, as soon as the mischief was
done; and, if you will believe it, their father and mother never
even looked round or took notice of all the confusion that was
going on. They sat and munched their onions and brown bread and
cheese as if they were in their own house all alone. One sees very
queer and disagreeable people in travelling. By the time Mr. and
Mrs. March had put out the fire, and picked up all the things and
wiped up the chocolate as well as they could with a newspaper, the
people who had gone out to get their dinners, all came pouring back,
and the cars began to move.
"Oh, dear me!" said Mrs. March: "we shall have to go without our
lunch now till tea-time. Here, children, just drink this milk, and
eat a piece of bread, and at tea-time, perhaps, we'll have better
luck."
"I don't care," said Rob; "I ain't hungry a bit: it's all so horrid
in here."
"Neither am I," said Nelly. "Can't we have a little room all to
ourselves to-morrow, papa?"
"No, Nell," said her father: "no more little room for us on this
journey; this car goes through to Denver. We can't change. But it is
only one night and one day: we can stand it."
"I'm glad part of it is night," said Nelly; "we'll be by ourselves
when we're in bed."
"Yes," said Mrs. March. "You are to sleep with me, and Rob with
papa; and we'll be all shut in behind the curtains. I think that
will be quite comfortable."
When the train stopped for the passengers to take supper, Mr. and
Mrs. March decided that they would go out too, and not try any more
experiments with the spirit-lamp while they had such dangerous and
disagreeable companions in the next seat.
Nelly and Rob clung to their father's hand as they entered the
eating-room. There were four long tables, all filled with people
eating as fast as they could eat. Nearly all the men had their hats
on their heads, and the noise of the knives and forks sounded like
the clatter of machinery. The train was to stop only twenty minutes,
and everybody was trying to eat all he could in so short a time. Mr.
and Mrs. March, being very gentle and quiet people, did not hurry
the waiters as the other people did; and so it happened that their
supper was not brought to them for some time. Nelly had eaten only a
few mouthfuls of her bread and milk when there was a general rush
from all the tables, and the room was emptied in a minute. The
conductor of the train was sitting at the table with the Marches,
and he said kindly to them:--
"Don't hurry; there is plenty of time; five minutes yet."
"Five minutes!" said Rob, scornfully: "I couldn't take five
mouthfuls in five minutes. I'm going to carry mine into the cars."
And he began spreading bread and butter.
"A good idea, Rob," said his mother. And she did the same thing;
and, as the conductor called "All aboard!" the March family entered
the car, each carrying two slices of bread and butter.
"Not much better luck with our supper than with our dinner, Sarah,"
said Mr. March; "I think you'll have to open your lunch-basket,
after all."
"Oh, don't ask me to!" said Mrs. March. "The children have had a
good drink of milk. We can get along till morning. I would rather go
hungry than take out the things with all those people looking on. We
can go to bed early: that will be a comfort."
Mistaken Mrs. March! They sat on the steps of the cars for half an
hour to watch the sunset. The brakeman had found out that Mr. March
was so careful and Nelly and Rob were such good children that he let
them sit there as often as they liked. Nelly loved dearly to sit
between her father's knees on the upper step and look down at the
ground as it seemed to fly away so swiftly under the wheels.
Sometimes they went so fast that the ground did not look like ground
at all. It looked like a smooth, striped sheet of brown and green
paper being drawn swiftly under the car wheels. It seemed to Rob and
Nelly as if they must be going out over the edge of the world. All
they could see was sky and ground.
"This is the way it looks when you are out in the middle of the
ocean, Nell," said her father; "just the great round sky over your
head, and the great flat sea underneath: only the sea is never still
as the ground is; that is the only difference."
"Still!" cried Rob. "You don't call this ground under us still, do
you? It's going as fast as lightning all the time."
"No, Rob! it is we who are going; the ground is still," said his
mother; "but it does look just as if the ground were flying one way
and we the other. It makes me almost dizzy to look down."
Pretty soon the moon came up in the east. It was almost full, and,
as it came up slowly in sight, it looked like a great circle of
fire. Rob and Nelly both cried out, when they first saw it:--
"Oh, mamma! oh, papa! see that fire!"
In a very few minutes it was up in full sight, and then they saw
what it was.
"Dear me! only the moon, after all," said Rob; "I hoped it was a big
fire."