“What in the world do you mean?” asked Nan, who, with Bert, now joined their father.
“Freddie must have gone outside the depot to go down a street,” said Bert. “Maybe she means he went into an animal store, where they sell monkeys and parrots.”
“No, they weren’t any monkeys—nor parrots, either,” said Flossie. “But some of the big bugs were green like a parrot. And we didn’t go outdoors, either.”
“Then show us where you did go,” ordered Mr. Bobbsey quickly. “I think we can find Freddie that way. Did you go into the store with him?” he asked his little girl.
“Nope. I ran back to get the money to buy the bugs that crawl around and around and around, and go in a little door all by theirselves!” said Flossie, who was not breathing so fast now.
“What is it all about?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey. “We seem to have found an odd part of New York as soon as we arrive.”
“It’s over this way,” and Flossie, taking her father’s hand, pulled him in the direction from which she had come. Up a flight of broad stone steps she led him, the others following, until, as they approached the main entrance of the station, Flossie pointed and said:
“There’s the street with all the stores on it. Freddie went down there, and we stopped in front of a window where the bugs are, that go around and around and—”
“Yes, dear, we know all about how they go around,” said her mother, with a smile. “But show us where Freddie is.”
“Just down the street,” said Flossie. “Come on.”
“Oh, I see what she means!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “It’s the arcade. This is part of the depot—the vestibule, so to speak,” he went on. “It’s the entrance, and it is so big that there is room for stores on either side. It does look like a street.”
And so it did, except that there were no automobiles or wagons in it—just people hurrying along. On either side of the arcade were stores, where fruit, candy, toys, flowers and other things were sold. You can imagine that a station which has room in it for many trains, automobiles and thousands of people easily has room for stores also.
“Come on—right down this way!” called Flossie, hurrying ahead of the others, “I’ll show you where the bugs are.”
“The bugs that go around and around and around,” laughed Bert, in a low tone to Nan.
“Oh, I do hope Freddie hasn’t gotten into any trouble,” sighed Nan, who, though she was only ten years old, felt much more grown up than either Flossie or Freddie.
“Here are the bugs!” cried Flossie, a little later, and she stopped in front of a station toy store, in the window of which a young man was showing how big tin bugs would move along on a spring roller that was fastened beneath them. There were green, red, yellow and spotted bugs, and they did indeed go “around and around and around,” as Flossie had said, and some of them steered themselves, when started by the young man, into the door of a little pasteboard house, where all the toy tin bugs seemed to live.
“There’s Freddie now, buying a bug!” cried Flossie, as she saw through the store door her brother talking to a clerk. And the clerk was showing Freddie how the bug “walked” on the wooden roller which answered for legs.
“I want a bug, too!” Flossie cried, and into the store dashed the little girl. “I’ve brought back Papa and Mamma and Bert and Nan,” Flossie explained to her brother. “They all want to see the bugs.”
“Well!” exclaimed the man in the store. “This is going to be a busy day for me, I guess,” and he smiled at the Bobbsey family.
“Can I have three of these bugs, Daddy?” asked Freddie, just as if he had caused no trouble at all by going off as he had done.
“I want three, too,” echoed Flossie.
“Oh, what funny looking things!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as the clerk sent the bugs crawling “around and around.”
“They are very amusing,” said the salesman, “and just the thing for children. They can play many games with them and keep out of mischief.”
“They’ll have to be pretty good to keep these youngsters out of mischief,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. “Yes, Freddie, you may have some bugs, and Flossie also. How about you, Nan and Bert?”
“I’d rather have that small aeroplane,” said Bert, pointing to one that could be wound up with a rubber band and would fly for some distance.
“And I’d like that work basket,” said Nan.
“Well, we’ll get you all something, and then we must start for our hotel,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “Come, Freddie, pick out the bugs you want, and don’t run away again. You might get lost, even if you are only in the railroad station.”
“I couldn’t get lost—Flossie knew where I was,” said Freddie. “I sent her back to bring you, so you could pay for my bugs.”
Then the two younger Bobbseys looked over about all the toy tin bugs in the station store, and finally picked out those they wanted, though it took some little time. Bert’s and Nan’s gifts were wrapped up long before Freddie could make up his mind whether to take a blue bug, striped with green, or a purple one, spotted with yellow, finally making up his mind that the last was best.
Then, after all the baggage had been collected, the family was ready to start for the hotel where they were to stay while in New York. Mr. Bobbsey wanted to get a taxicab, but Flossie and Freddie had heard of the elevated trains, which ran “in the air,” and they wanted to go in one of them, saying it would be such fun. So, as it was almost as near one way as it was the other, Mr. Bobbsey consented, and they set off for the elevated railroad.
“Oh, there goes a train!” cried Flossie, as they came in sight of the station, which was high above the street, set on iron pillars, some of which also held up the elevated track. “Just think, Freddie, we’re going to ride on a high train!” Flossie was quite excited.
“I hope it doesn’t fall,” said Nan.
“They’re made strong on purpose, so they won’t fall,” said Bert.
Flossie and Freddie ran on ahead up the elevated stairs, and just as their father was buying the tickets, to drop in the little box where the “chopper” stood, working up and down a long handle, a train rumbled into the station.
The iron gates of the car platforms were pulled back, several persons hurried off and others hurried on. Flossie and Freddie, thinking this was the train their parents, Bert and Nan, were going to take, and, being anxious to get seats near the window where they could look out, rushed past the ticket chopper, darted through the open gates and into one of the cars.
CHAPTER VIII
A Long Ride
Flossie and Freddie, scurrying through the gates of the elevated car just as the guard was about to close them, saw inside two rows of seats on either side, there being very few passengers in that coach. Thinking their father and mother, with Bert and Nan, were right behind them, the two little twins felt no fear, but rushed in, each one anxious to get a seat.
“I’m going to sit by a window!” cried Freddie.
“So’m I!” added Flossie, and both were soon kneeling on the rattan seats, with their noses fairly flattened against the glass of the window. The few passengers in the train smiled, for they knew the children must be from somewhere outside of New York, as the little folk of that city are not so eager to see the sights amid which they live.
It was not until the train had started, and had gone several blocks, that Flossie and Freddie thought of their father and mother. They were greatly interested in looking out of the windows, and watching the train rush past at the level of the upper stories of the houses and stores along the streets. It did seem so strange to them to be riding in a train high up in the air, instead of on the ground.
“It’s lots better than a tunnel, and I used to think they were lots of fun!” said Flossie, fairly bubbling over with joy.
“It’s great!” cried Freddie, and he flattened his nose out more than ever against the glass, trying to look around a corner. For he had seen in one window of a house a boy dropping from the w
indow of his home a basket on a string, and Freddie wanted to see why he was doing this.
It is no unusual sight in New York, to see children, not much larger than the small Bobbsey twins, traveling about alone, so the other passengers and the trainmen, after the first few smiles, paid no attention to Flossie and Freddie. But the two themselves, after their first wonder at the sights they saw, began to think of their father and mother, as well as of Bert and Nan.
“Where are they?” asked Flossie, after a bit, as she turned around and sat down in her seat.
“Didn’t they—didn’t they come in after us?” asked Freddie, his chubby face taking on a worried look.
“I—I didn’t see them,” returned Flossie. “Maybe they’re in another car. Let’s go to look!”
To say a thing was generally to do it, with the smaller Bobbsey twins, at least, and no sooner did Flossie say this than Freddie was ready to go with her on a hunt for the others. The children slipped from their seats and started for the door while the train was moving swiftly, but a guard, who is a sort of brake-man, stopped them.
“Where are you youngsters going?” he asked good-naturedly.
“We want our father and mother,” explained Freddie. “They must be in another car. We hurried on ahead.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened,” said the guard, with a laugh. “But I guess you’re a little too small to go navigating around from car to car when the train’s moving. What’s your father’s name? I’ll have him called out for in the other cars.”
“He’s Mr. Richard Bobbsey, of Lakeport,” said Flossie, “and my mother and sister and brother are with him. My sister is Nan and my brother is Bert. This is my brother, Freddie.”
“Well, now I guess I know the whole family,” laughed the guard, the other passengers joining in a smile. “I’ll see if I can find your folks for you, though it’s strange they haven’t been looking for you themselves. You stay here.”
The guard started to go through the other cars of the elevated train, and Freddie called after him:
“If you find my father, please tell him to open the box and take out the yellow bug.”
“The yellow bug?” repeated the guard in some surprise. “Is your father an animal trainer?”
“Oh, no,” said Flossie, seriously. “Freddie means one of the tin bugs that go around and around and around. And, if you please, I want a green one.”
“Say, I wonder what kind of children these are, anyhow,” murmured the guard. “Guess they must belong to a theatre or a circus.”
“They look nice,” said a man sitting near the door.
“Oh, they’re all right, that’s sure. Well, I’ll see if I can find their folks for ’em.”
Elevated railroad men in New York get used to doing strange things, and seeing strange sights, so it did not cause much excitement when the guard went into the different cars calling for Mr. Bobbsey. He had to come back to his own car once to call out “Forty-second Street,” and to open the gates to let passengers off and others on. Then he closed the gates and called out: “Fiftieth Street next,” After that he went again into the cars he had not been in before and called for Mr. Bobbsey, But of course that gentleman did not answer, being a station or two behind by this time.
The guard, not being able to find Mr. or Mrs. Bobbsey, or Nan and Bert, came back to where Flossie and Freddie were now rather anxiously waiting.
“Did you find him?” asked the children eagerly.
“No, I’m sorry to say your father isn’t on this train. But don’t worry. I’ll look out for you, and your father is sure to come for you sooner or later.”
“Did you find any of the bugs?” asked Freddie.
“That go around and around and around,” added Flossie.
“No,” said the guard, laughing, “I didn’t. What about them?”
Freddie explained what he meant, and asked if the train could not be stopped while he went into the nearest toy store to buy some more of the tin, crawling toys. But the guard said this could not be done.
“I don’t just know what to do with you,” he said, scratching his head. “If your father thought, he could telephone to any of the stations where our train will stop—this is an express train and does not make many stops after Sixty-sixth Street till the end of the line. He could have the agent there take you off and keep you until he could come. Or, I might take you to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, which is the end of the line, and have the agent there take charge of you. I don’t know what to do.”
Just then Flossie thought of something:
“Oh, Freddie!” she cried. “We haven’t any tickets or any money, unless you have some, and the conductor will put us off!”
“I’ve got five cents,” said Freddie, taking it out of his small pocket.
“That’s only enough for a street-car ride, and this is the elevated railroad,” replied his blue-eyed sister. “Oh, what shall we do?” And there was just a little tear in each eye as she looked at the guard.
“What’s the matter now?” he asked kindly. “Do you want a bug?”
“No—I mean yes, but not now. We haven’t any tickets and the conductor—”
“Didn’t you drop your tickets in the chopper’s box at the station where you got on?”
“No. We ran on ahead,” explained Freddie.
“Ho! I see! You were so small that the ticket chopper didn’t see you. Well, don’t worry—it will be all right. The road won’t lose much by carrying you two.”
“You could send the bill to my father,” said Flossie. “That’s what mother says when she goes to buy things at the store.”
“That will be all right,” the guard said. “I’ll see that you’re not put off until the proper time comes. And you save your five cents,” he added to Freddie, who was holding up the nickel. “You might want to buy some peanuts.”
“Oh, that’s so—for the monkeys in the park!” cried Freddie. “I forgot we were going to see them!”
By this time some of the other passengers were interested in the children, asking them many questions and learning the story of their coming to New York on a visit.
“They don’t seem worried,” said one woman. “And they’re quite lost in this big city.”
“Oh, we’ve been lost before,” said Flossie easily. “Lots of times!”
“In the woods, too,” added Freddie. “And we heard funny noises. But we weren’t scared. Were we, Flossie?”
“Nope. We’ll just keep on riding now until Daddy comes for us. It’s fun, I think.”
“And we don’t have to pay for it, either,” said Freddie, with satisfaction, as he put away his only piece of money. “I’m going to save this for peanuts for the monkeys.”
“Will you save some for me?” asked Flossie. “I’m getting hungry.”
“Maybe we’ll eat these peanuts all ourselves,” said Freddie, after thinking about it for a moment. “We can get some for the monkeys later afterward. I’m hungry, too.”
“Well, you’ve got quite a long trip ahead of you,” said the guard in whose car they were. “It’s quite a ride to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street. I’ll ask the gateman at the next stop if your father has telephoned about you. Just sit still.”
And so Flossie and Freddie, in the elevated express train, were having a long ride all by themselves. They were not frightened now, for they were sure their father or mother would come for them soon, as he had done the day they were spilled out of the ice-boat and were taken in by Uncle Jack.
“I wonder what that nice woodchopper man is doing now?” asked Flossie. “Uncle Jack, I mean.”
“I hope his pain is better,” said Freddie. “Maybe we could get him work here on the elevated railroad, chopping tickets at the station.” When people drop their tickets into the glass boxes at the elevated or subway stations they are “chopped” into fine pieces by the men who pump the handles up and down. “Uncle Jack chops wood,” went on Freddie, “and he could easy chop ti
ckets.”
So Flossie and Freddie kept on with their long ride, talking and looking out of the train windows.
CHAPTER IX
In the Store
Mr. Bobbsey bought his tickets, put his change in his pocket, and turned to gather his little party together to take them through the gate, past the ticket chopper.
“Why, where are Freddie and Flossie?” he asked.
Mrs. Bobbsey, Nan, Bert, none of them, had seen the little twins rush past the ticket chopper and on to the train. All began to turn here and there excitedly, looking about for the blue-eyed boy and girl.
“Now, now,” said Mr. Bobbsey, “don’t worry. You, Bert, and your mother and Nan will wait here at the head of the stairs, while I go down to the street and see if the children went down there again. I’ll not be gone long. If they are not close at hand, I’ll come back to you before making further search. Now, as I said, don’t worry. In a city children are always quickly found.”
Mr. Bobbsey did as he said, but, of course, saw nothing of Freddie and Flossie, who were now having a very nice ride and a very good time indeed on the elevated express train.
By this time the ticket chopper, the agent who sold tickets, the station porter and several persons who were waiting to take a train, had heard from Nan and Bert what had happened. These people offered all sorts of advice, but Mr. Bobbsey thought it best to listen to that of the ticket agent, who, of course, would know more about the elevated trains than persons who only rode on them two or three times a day.
The ticket chopper had seen the children rush by him and on to the train, but they had gone by so quickly that he had not been able to stop them, and, as there were a good many people on the platform, he did not know to whom they belonged. So he told the ticket seller and Mr. Bobbsey that Flossie and Freddie had taken the last express train that had passed the station.
“It would have been easy enough to stop them if you’d only known it at first,” said the ticket seller; “but they’ve got the start of you now, and after Sixty-sixth Street these express trains make only a few stops before they reach the end of the line. But I can telephone to one of the ticket sellers at one of the uptown stations and have him meet the train and take the children off.”
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 99