They took the letter down to the Station Master.
"I thought you said you hadn"t got any friends except in London," said he.
"We"ve made him since," said Peter.
"But he doesn"t live hereabouts?"
"No--we just know him on the railway."
Then the Station Master retired to that sacred inner temple behind the little window where the tickets are sold, and the children went down to the Porters" room and talked to the Porter. They learned several interesting things from him--among others that his name was Perks, that he was married and had three children, that the lamps in front of engines are called head-lights and the ones at the back tail-lights.
"And that just shows," whispered Phyllis, "that trains really ARE dragons in disguise, with proper heads and tails."
It was on this day that the children first noticed that all engines are not alike.
"Alike?" said the Porter, whose name was Perks, "lor, love you, no, Miss. No more alike nor what you an" me are. That little "un without a tender as went by just now all on her own, that was a tank, that was--she"s off to do some shunting t"other side o" Maidbridge. That"s as it might be you, Miss. Then there"s goods engines, great, strong things with three wheels each side--joined with rods to strengthen "em--as it might be me. Then there"s main-line engines as it might be this "ere young gentleman when he grows up and wins all the races at "is school--so he will. The main-line engine she"s built for speed as well as power. That"s one to the 9.15 up."
"The Green Dragon," said Phyllis.
"We calls her the Snail, Miss, among ourselves," said the Porter. "She"s oftener be"ind"and nor any train on the line."
"But the engine"s green," said Phyllis.
"Yes, Miss," said Perks, "so"s a snail some seasons o" the year."
The children agreed as they went home to dinner that the Porter was most delightful company.
Next day was Roberta"s birthday. In the afternoon she was politely but firmly requested to get out of the way and keep there till tea-time.
"You aren"t to see what we"re going to do till it"s done; it"s a glorious surprise," said Phyllis.
And Roberta went out into the garden all alone. She tried to be grateful, but she felt she would much rather have helped in whatever it was than have to spend her birthday afternoon by herself, no matter how glorious the surprise might be.
Now that she was alone, she had time to think, and one of the things she thought of most was what mother had said in one of those feverish nights when her hands were so hot and her eyes so bright.
The words were: "Oh, what a doctor"s bill there"ll be for this!"
She walked round and round the garden among the rose-bushes that hadn"t any roses yet, only buds, and the lilac bushes and syringas and American currants, and the more she thought of the doctor"s bill, the less she liked the thought of it.
And presently she made up her mind. She went out through the side door of the garden and climbed up the steep field to where the road runs along by the ca.n.a.l. She walked along until she came to the bridge that crosses the ca.n.a.l and leads to the village, and here she waited. It was very pleasant in the sunshine to lean one"s elbows on the warm stone of the bridge and look down at the blue water of the ca.n.a.l. Bobbie had never seen any other ca.n.a.l, except the Regent"s Ca.n.a.l, and the water of that is not at all a pretty colour. And she had never seen any river at all except the Thames, which also would be all the better if its face was washed.
Perhaps the children would have loved the ca.n.a.l as much as the railway, but for two things. One was that they had found the railway FIRST--on that first, wonderful morning when the house and the country and the moors and rocks and great hills were all new to them. They had not found the ca.n.a.l till some days later. The other reason was that everyone on the railway had been kind to them--the Station Master, the Porter, and the old gentleman who waved. And the people on the ca.n.a.l were anything but kind.
The people on the ca.n.a.l were, of course, the bargees, who steered the slow barges up and down, or walked beside the old horses that trampled up the mud of the towing-path, and strained at the long tow-ropes.
Peter had once asked one of the bargees the time, and had been told to "get out of that," in a tone so fierce that he did not stop to say anything about his having just as much right on the towing-path as the man himself. Indeed, he did not even think of saying it till some time later.
Then another day when the children thought they would like to fish in the ca.n.a.l, a boy in a barge threw lumps of coal at them, and one of these hit Phyllis on the back of the neck. She was just stooping down to tie up her bootlace--and though the coal hardly hurt at all it made her not care very much about going on fishing.
On the bridge, however, Roberta felt quite safe, because she could look down on the ca.n.a.l, and if any boy showed signs of meaning to throw coal, she could duck behind the parapet.
Presently there was a sound of wheels, which was just what she expected.
The wheels were the wheels of the Doctor"s dogcart, and in the cart, of course, was the Doctor.
He pulled up, and called out:--
"Hullo, head nurse! Want a lift?"
"I wanted to see you," said Bobbie.
"Your mother"s not worse, I hope?" said the Doctor.
"No--but--"
"Well, skip in, then, and we"ll go for a drive."
Roberta climbed in and the brown horse was made to turn round--which it did not like at all, for it was looking forward to its tea--I mean its oats.
"This IS jolly," said Bobbie, as the dogcart flew along the road by the ca.n.a.l.
"We could throw a stone down any one of your three chimneys," said the Doctor, as they pa.s.sed the house.
"Yes," said Bobbie, "but you"d have to be a jolly good shot."
"How do you know I"m not?" said the Doctor. "Now, then, what"s the trouble?"
Bobbie fidgeted with the hook of the driving ap.r.o.n.
"Come, out with it," said the Doctor.
"It"s rather hard, you see," said Bobbie, "to out with it; because of what Mother said."
"What DID Mother say?"
"She said I wasn"t to go telling everyone that we"re poor. But you aren"t everyone, are you?"
"Not at all," said the Doctor, cheerfully. "Well?"
"Well, I know doctors are very extravagant--I mean expensive, and Mrs.
Viney told me that her doctoring only cost her twopence a week because she belonged to a Club."
"Yes?"
"You see she told me what a good doctor you were, and I asked her how she could afford you, because she"s much poorer than we are. I"ve been in her house and I know. And then she told me about the Club, and I thought I"d ask you--and--oh, I don"t want Mother to be worried! Can"t we be in the Club, too, the same as Mrs. Viney?"
The Doctor was silent. He was rather poor himself, and he had been pleased at getting a new family to attend. So I think his feelings at that minute were rather mixed.
"You aren"t cross with me, are you?" said Bobbie, in a very small voice.