Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South Part 24

"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.

CHAPTER XX

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 pa.s.senger 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 p.u.s.s.y 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.