CHAPTER II
THE QUEER OLD MAN
The first impulse of Bert and Nan Bobbsey was, of course, to rush outof the yard and go with Charley Mason to see the train wreck. And,naturally, as soon as Bert and Nan began to run, Flossie and Freddie,forgetting snow men, snow houses, and even Dinah's cookies, startedafter their older brother and sister.
"Go on back!" cried Bert to the two smaller children. "You can't comewith us!"
"We want to see the wreck!" declared Freddie. "Maybe it's on fire, an'if I'm goin' to be a fireman I must see fires!"
He always declared he was going to be a fireman when he grew up, andhe was eager to see the engines every time they went out in answer toan alarm of fire.
"Come on, Bert, if you're coming!" called Charley Mason, from thestreet in front of the Bobbsey home. "It's a terrible wreck--cars offthe track--engines all smashed up--everything!"
"Here, Nan, you take Flossie and Freddie into the house! I'm goingwith Charley!" said Bert.
"I want to see the wreck, too!" objected Nan. "You go into the house,Freddie, and I'll bring you a lollypop when I come back," she added."Don't want a lollypop! I want to see the busted engines!" declaredFreddie almost ready to cry.
"So do I!" chimed in Flossie. She generally did want to see the samethings Freddie saw.
"Oh, dear! what shall we do?" exclaimed Nan.
Just then, from the door, Mrs. Bobbsey called:
"Children, children, what's the matter? What was that loud noise thatseemed to shake the house?"
"It's a train wreck and I want to go down with Charley Mason to seeit!" answered Bert. "But Flossie and Freddie want to come, and they'retoo little and--and--"
Then Flossie and Freddie began to talk, and so did Nan and so didCharley, and there was so much talking that I will wait a few minutesfor every one to get quiet, and then go on with the story. And, whileI am waiting, I will tell my new readers something about the Bobbseytwins as they have been written about in the books that come beforethis one in the series.
The four children lived in the eastern city of Lakeport, at the headof Lake Metoka. Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business, and boats onthe lake in summer and trains on the railroad in winter brought pilesof boards to his yard.
"The Bobbsey Twins" is the name of the first book of this series, andin it you may read of the fun Bert and Nan and Flossie and Freddie hadtogether, playing with Charley Mason, Danny Rugg, Nellie Parks andother children of the neighborhood. Sometimes the children had littlequarrels, as all boys and girls do, and, once in a while, Bert and Nanwould be "mad at" Charley Mason or Danny Rugg. But they soon becamefriends again, and had jolly times together. Just at present Charleyand Bert were on good terms.
The second book is called "The Bobbsey Twins in the Country," andthose who have read it remember the summer spent on the farm of UncleDaniel Bobbsey and his wife Sarah, who lived at Meadow Brook.
Another uncle, named William Minturn, a brother-in-law of Mrs.Bobbsey's, lived at Ocean Cliff; and in the third book, called "TheBobbsey Twins at the Seashore," you may learn of the good times Bertand the others had playing on the beach and having adventures.
After that the Bobbsey twins went to school, and they spent part of awinter at Snow Lodge. Some time later they made a trip on a houseboat,and stopped again at Meadow Brook. The next adventures of the childrentook place at home, and from there they went to a great city wheremany wonderful things happened. Blueberry Island was as nice a placeas the name sounds, and Bert, Nan, Flossie, and Freddie never forgotthe fun they had there. It was almost as exciting as when theytraveled on the deep, blue sea. But you can imagine how happy theBobbsey twins were when their father told them he was going to takethem to Washington!
The book about the Washington trip, telling of the mystery of MissPompret's china, comes just before the one you are now reading, and itwas on their return from that capital city that the children werehaving fun in the snow.
Christmas had come and gone, bringing much happiness, and it wasbecause they had discovered some of Miss Pompret's missing china in avery strange way that the Bobbsey twins had a much nicer Christmasthan usual.
After the holidays winter set in hard and fast, but of course it couldnot last forever, and there were some who said this snow storm, whichgave the Bobbsey twins such a fine chance to have fun, would be thelast of the season.
It was, as I have told you, while Bert, Nan, Flossie, and Freddie weremaking a snow house and a snow man that they had heard the loud crashand Charley Mason had called out about the wreck.
"Has there really been an accident?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, when the talkhad somewhat quieted down.
"Oh, yes'm!" exclaimed Charley. "From my house up on the hill I canlook right down into the railroad cut. I was out feeding my dog, and Iheard the noise and I looked and I saw the two engines all smashedtogether and cars off the track and a lot of people running aroundand--and--everything!"
Charley had to stop to catch his breath.
Mrs. Bobbsey looked down the street and saw a number of men and womenand some girls and boys hurrying to the railroad tracks.
"We want to go to see it!" begged Bert.
"And we want to go, too!" pleaded Freddie.
Sam Johnson, the husband of Dinah, the cook, came around the corner ofthe house.
"There's somethin' must 'a' happened down by the railroad," he said toMrs. Bobbsey.
"Yes, it's a wreck," she answered. "The children want to go, but Ican't have them going alone. You may take them down, Sam, but if it istoo bad--you know what I mean, too many people hurt--bring them rightback."
"Yassum, I'll do that there!" agreed Sam, glad himself to get thechance to see what all the excitement was about. "Come along,chilluns!" he added, with a smile.
"Oh, now we can go!" cried Flossie, as she raced over and took one ofSam's hands. "Now we can go!"
"Yep! Sam'll take care of us. Won't you, Sam?" asked Freddie as hetook the other hand. "And if there's a fire I can go near tie firemen,can't I?" he begged.
"We'll see," said the colored man, with a nod to Mrs. Bobbsey to showthat he understood how to look after the smaller twins.
"Come on!" cried Charley. "I want to see that wreck!"
"So do I!" added Bert, as he hurried on ahead with Nan and Charley.Sam, leading Flossie and Freddie by the hands, followed more slowlyout into the street, where the sidewalks had been cleared of snow sothe walking was easier. Snap, the dog, tried to follow, but fearingthat he might get hurt, Bert drove him back.
The railroad ran at the foot of the street on which the Bobbsey housestood. The street went downhill to the tracks, and the railroad passedthrough what Charley had called a "cut."
That is, a cut had been made through the side of the hill so thetracks would be as nearly level as possible. Sometimes, when a hill istoo high the railroad has to go through it in a tunnel. And a "cut" isa tunnel with the top taken off.
As Bert, Nan, and the others hurried along the street they saw manyother persons hastening in the direction of the wreck. In a cutter,drawn by a horse that had a string of jingling bells on, Dr. Brownpassed, waving to the Bobbsey twins.
"I guess there must be somebody hurt, or Dr. Brown wouldn't be going,"said Charley Mason.
"I guess so," agreed Bert. "I never saw a big wreck."
"Well, this is a big one!" cried Charley. "I saw the two engines allsmashed up."
A little later the Bobbsey twins, in charge of Sam, came to the edgeof the cut. They could look down to the railroad tracks and see thewreck. Surely enough, two trains had come together, one enginesmashing into the other. Both trains were on the same track, and hadbeen going in opposite directions. There was a curve in the cut, andneither engineer had seen the other train coming until it was too lateto stop.
"Why--why, they just bunketed right together, didn't they?" criedFreddie. "They just bunketed right together, like my express wagonwhen it ran into Henry Watson's push-o-mobile the other day."
"That's just
what happened," said Bert.
For a moment the Bobbsey twins stood and looked down at the wreck.Just as Charley had said, the two engines were smashed and there weresome cars knocked off the track. But the wreck was not as bad as ithad seemed at first, and I am glad to say no one was killed, though anumber of people were hurt.
The Bobbsey twins could see these persons, who had been passengers onone or the other of the trains, moving about down in the railroad cut.Some of them did not seem to know just what had happened. The accidenthad so frightened them that they were in a daze.
Trainmen, policemen, and even some firemen, were helping the injuredpersons away from the wreck. There had been no fire, and, much asFreddie liked to see the engines, he was glad there was no blaze tomake matters worse for the poor people who were hurt.
"Dat suah is a smash!" declared Sam, as he stood on the bank, holdingthe hands of Freddie and Flossie. "Dey suah did bump togedderlickity-smash!"
"Let's go down closer!" suggested Charley Mason.
Bert looked at Sam, as if asking if this might be done.
"No, indeedy!" exclaimed the faithful colored man. "Yo'all jest stayright yeah! Yo'all's ma tole me to look after yo', an' I'se gwine todo it! Yo'all kin see whut dey is to see right yeah! If you goes anycloster one ob dem bullgines might blow up!"
"I don't want to be blowed up; do I, Sam?" put in Flossie.
"No, indeedy!" he answered.
"Well, I'm going down!" declared Charley.
And, not having any one with him to make him mind, he slid down thesnow-covered bank to the tracks, where there was quite a large crowdnow gathered.
The railroad men were starting to work to get the wreck off thetracks, so other trains might pass. The injured persons were beingcared for by Dr. Brown and others, and the worst of the wreck seemedover. Still there was much for the Bobbsey twins to look at.
Flossie and Freddie kept tight hold of Sam's hand, and Bert and Nanstood a little way off, gazing down into the cut. As the Bobbsey twinsstood there they saw, climbing up a narrow foot-path on the side ofthe railroad hill, a queer old man. He was dressed somewhat as thechildren had seen Uncle Daniel Bobbsey dress on a cold day at thefarm, with a red scarf about his neck. And this man was carrying hishat in one hand while in the other he held a banana half-pealed andeaten.
The queer man seemed very much frightened, and he was hurrying up thehill path as though trying to run away from something. Bert had justtime to see that there was a cut on the man's head, which wasbleeding, when, all at once, the queer character cried:
"There! I forgot my satchel! I thought this was it!" and he looked atthe banana he was carrying. He turned, as though to hurry back downtoward the wreck, and then he slipped and fell in the snow.
"Mah goodness!" cried Sam, as he dropped the hands of the smallerBobbsey twins and sprang toward the man. "You's gwine to slide rightdown on de tracks ag'in ef you don't be keerful!" And Sam caught thequeer man just in time.