"Why, Dabney! Is that you? How you startled me! Forgot your label?"
"Yes," said Dab; "I"m in another new suit today; and I meant to have a label on the collar, with my name on it. You"d have known me then."
"But I know you now," exclaimed Jenny. "Why, I saw you yesterday."
"Yes, and I told you it was me. Can you read, Jenny?"
"Why, what a question!"
"Because, if you can"t, it won"t do me any good to wear a label."
"Dabney Kinzer!" exclaimed Jenny, "there"s an other thing you ought to get."
"What"s that?"
"Some good manners," said the little lady snappishly. "Think of your stopping me in the street to tell me I can"t read!"
"Then you mustn"t forget me so quick," said Dab. "If you meet my old clothes anywhere you must call them d.i.c.k Lee. They"ve had a change of name."
"So he"s in them, is he? I don"t doubt they look better than they ever did before."
Jenny walked away at once, at the end of that remark, holding her head pretty high, and leaving her old playmate feeling as if he had had a little the worst of it. That was often the way with people who stopped to talk with Jenny Walters, and she was not as much of a favorite as she otherwise might have been.
Dabney looked after her with his mouth puckered into shape for a whistle; but she had hardly disappeared before he found himself confronted by the strange young gentleman.
"Is your name Dabney Kinzer?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"Well, I"m Mr. Ford Foster, from New York."
"Come over here to buy goods?" suggested Dabney. "Or to get something to eat?"
Ford Foster was apparently of about Dab"s age, but a full head less in height, so that there was more point in the question than there seemed to be; but he treated it as not worthy of notice, and asked,--
"Do you know of a house to let anywhere about here?"
"House to let?" suddenly exclaimed the voice of Mrs. Kinzer, behind him, much to Dab"s surprise. "Are you asking about a house? Whom for?"
Ford Foster had been quite ready to "chaff" d.i.c.k Lee, and he would not have hesitated about trying a like experiment upon Mr. Dabney Kinzer; but he knew enough to speak respectfully to the portly and business-like lady before him now.
"Yes, madam," he said, with a ceremonious bow: "I wish to report to my father that I have found an acceptable house in this vicinity."
"You do!"
Mrs. Kinzer was reading the young gentleman through and through, as she spoke; but she followed her exclamation with a dozen questions, all of which he answered with a good deal of clearness and intelligence. She wound up at last, with,--
"Go right home, then, and tell your father the only good house to let in this neighborhood will be ready for him next week. I"ll show it to him when he comes, but he"d better see me at once. Dabney, jump into the buggy. I"m in a hurry."
The ponies were in motion, up the street, before Ford Foster quite recovered from the shock of being told to "go right home."
"A very remarkable woman," he muttered, as he turned away, "and she did not tell me a word about the house, after all. I must make some more inquiries. The boy is actually well dressed, for a place like this."
"Mother," said Dabney, as they drove along, "you wouldn"t let "em have Ham"s house, would you?"
"No, indeed. But I don"t mean to have our own stand empty."
With that reply a great deal of light broke in upon Dab"s mind.
"That"s it, is it?" he said to himself, as he touched up the ponies.
"Well, there"ll be room enough for all of us there, and no mistake. But what"ll Ham say?"
That was a question which he could safely leave to the very responsible lady beside him; and she found "errands" enough for him, during the remainder of that forenoon, to keep him from worrying his mind about any thing else.
As for Ford Foster, it was not until late on the following day that he completed all his "inquiries" to his satisfaction. He took the afternoon train for the city, almost convinced that, much as he undoubtedly knew before he came, he had actually acquired a good deal more knowledge which might be of some value.
Ford was almost the only pa.s.senger in the car he had selected. Trains going towards the city were apt to be thinly peopled at that time of day; but the empty cars had to be taken along all the same, for the benefit of the crowds who would be coming out later in the afternoon and in the evening. The railway-company would have made more money with full loads both ways, but it was well they did not have a full load on that precise train.
Ford had turned over the seat in front of him, and stretched himself out with his feet on it. It was almost like lying down, for a boy of his length; and it was the very best position he could possibly have taken if he had known what was coming.
Known what was coming?
Yes: there was a pig coming.
That was all; but it was quite enough, considering what that pig was about to do. He was going where he chose, just then; and not only had he chosen to walk upon the railroad-track, but he had also made up his mind not to turn out for that locomotive and its train of cars.
He saw it, of course, for he was looking straight at it; and the engineer saw him, but it would have been well for the pig if he had been discovered a few seconds earlier.
"What a whistle!" exclaimed Ford Foster at that moment. "It sounds more like the squeal of an iron pig than any thing else. I"--
But at that instant there came to him a great jolt and a shock; and Ford found himself tumbled all in a heap, on the seat where his feet had been. Then came bounce after bounce, and the sound of breaking gla.s.s, and then a crash.
"Off the track," shouted Ford, as he sprang to his feet. "I wouldn"t have missed it for any thing. I do hope, though, there hasn"t anybody been killed."
In the tremendous excitement of the moment he could hardly have told how he got out of that car; but it did not seem ten seconds before he was standing beside the engineer and conductor of the train, looking at the battered engine, as it lay upon its side in a deep ditch. The baggage-car, just behind it, was broken all to pieces, but the pa.s.senger-cars did not seem to have suffered very much; and n.o.body was badly hurt, as the engineer and fireman had jumped off in time.
There had been very little left of the pig; but the conductor and the rest seemed much disposed to say unkind things about him, and about his owner, and about all the other pigs they could think of.
"This train"ll never get in on time," said Ford to the conductor, a little later. "How"ll I get to the city?"
The railway man was not in the best of humors; and he answered, a little groutily, "Well, young man, I don"t suppose the city could get along without you over night. The junction with the main road is only two miles ahead, and if you"re a good walker you may catch a train there."
Some of the other pa.s.sengers, none of whom were much more than "badly shaken up," or down, had made the same discovery; and in a few minutes more there was a long, straggling procession of uncomfortable people, marching by the side of the railway-track, in the hot sun. They were nearly all of them making unkind remarks about pigs, and the faculty they had of not getting out of the way.
The conductor was right, however; and nearly all of them managed to walk the two miles to the junction in time to go in on the other train.
Ford Foster was among the first to arrive, and he was likely to reach home in season, in spite of the pig and his outrageous conduct.