"It won"t be such a big surprise, for mother knows we are coming some time to-day."
"Then there is no use in sending word ahead," decided Dorothy. "They will be looking for us anyway."
Just here Mr. Ramsey came up. "Well, young ladies," he said, "so you are going to leave me. I think this young man can be trusted to take care of you the rest of the way, and I hope as soon as Jennie gets back you will come in to see her. We have all enjoyed having you with us, and I hope you will feel perfectly at home in our house always."
The little girls thanked him and said they had had a very happy time and wouldn"t he tell Jennie to come out to see them as soon as she returned. So they parted, and then there was the rush of getting to the train and the pleasant sense of knowing this was the last stage of their journey. Ben whiled away the time by asking them ridiculous conundrums which made them so hilarious that more than one fellow traveller smiled in sympathy with their merry laughs.
The more absurd the conundrums the better the children liked them, and those that Ben made up as they went along pleased them best of all.
"When is a fence not a fence?" asked Ben and the answer was, "when it"s an advertis.e.m.e.nt." "What would you do if company came and there were no more tea in the teapot?" was the next question.
"I"d send out for more tea," responded Dorothy.
"What would you do, Ande?"
"I don"t know. What would you?"
"I"d add hot water and serve just as the sign tells you to do."
"But that means for soup."
"Well, but it answers just as well for tea. Now, here is another one for you. Suppose you couldn"t get tea, what would you do?
"I"d go without."
"I wouldn"t; I"d use Horlick"s malted milk."
"Oh, that is the sign just over there, isn"t it? Too late, Dorothy, we"ve pa.s.sed it."
"Make up another, Ben," urged Dorothy.
"Well, here goes. If I wanted to be sure of an intellectual meal, what would I do?"
They guessed several things, but Ben shook his head at each answer. "I think it is a very hard one," declared Edna. "Intellectual is a hard word anyhow. You will have to tell us, Ben."
"Give it up?"
"Yes, I do; don"t you, Dorrie?"
"Yes, it is too hard for me."
"Then this is the answer: I"d put my roasts through a course of Browning. I think that"s pretty good myself. I shall have to salt it down to ask your elders. I"ll give you an easy one now. Why do they call the man who drives the locomotive an engineer?"
Edna finally guessed this. "Because he is near the engine," she said.
"Good girl; go up head," cried Ben. "You seem to be improving. Now each of you try to make up a limerick and I"ll do the same."
"Oh, we can"t do that," objected Dorothy.
"Yes, you can if you try. I will give you a model.
There was a young person named Dorrie Who said to her comrade, "I"m sorry I came on the train, But I"ll do it again When Ben isn"t with us to worry.""
The girls laughed at this and set themselves to work to produce something of the same kind. After many attempts Edna gave this:
"There was a young man named Benny Who said, "Please give me a penny.
Some peanuts I"ll buy All nice and dry,"
But he didn"t give us children any."
"That"s not bad at all," said Ben laughing. "Did you mean that for a hint, and do you think I"d buy peanuts and keep them all to myself?"
"Oh, no." Edna was shocked that he should think she really intended a hint. "I just had to make up something and that was the best I could do."
"Oh, dear, I can"t get my last line," complained Dorothy. "I"ve tried and tried and I can"t find a rhyme for Barker and Parker. This as far as I can get:
There was a young man named Barker Who stayed at the Hotel Parker And ate lots of rolls And drank from the bowls--
I had to say bowls to make it rhyme, though I really meant cups, and there I am stuck."
Here Ben came to her rescue.
"And drank from the bowls Until his complexion grew darker,"
he added to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the girls.
They kept up the limericks for some time, though Dorothy found it such hard work that she finally refused to try any more, and Ben looking at his watch decided it was time to go into the dining-car for dinner.
This was a new experience and made a pleasant break in the monotony of the journey. By the time the meal was finished they were so near their own station that the rest of the way seemed nothing at all. At the station they had to change cars or else make the trip by the trolley.
"Which shall we do?" asked Ben.
"Which will get us there first?" asked Edna.
"Let me see." Ben pulled out a time table. "There will be a train in half an hour. It is a pretty good one, and I think will get us there about five minutes ahead of the trolley. It"s a choice between sitting in the station or going ahead on the trolley."
"Which would you rather do?" Dorothy asked him.
"I think perhaps the train will be better on account of the baggage which can go right through with us." So they sat down to wait till their train should be called and found enough to amuse them in watching the people go and come.
"It does look so natural," remarked Dorothy, when the train began to move. "Just think, Edna, in a few days we shall be starting to school again, and be coming this way every day."
"And we shall be seeing Uncle Justus and Aunt Elizabeth and all the girls. I wonder if we shall have as good times at the G. R. Club as we did last year. We must go to see Margaret and Nettie very soon, Dorothy, for we shall have such heaps to tell them."
"We shall want to tell our own families first."
"Oh, of course. I wonder if Uncle Justus is still with the others on the yacht. I never thought to ask Ben." She leaned over to speak to her cousin who was sitting directly in front and learned that Mr. Horner had left the yacht at Portland and had come home by rail from that city.
"The old chap had a good time while he was with us," Ben told her, "and I think it limbered him up a lot."
"Why, was he stiff from rheumatism like Cap"n Si?" asked Edna innocently.