XXII
WORK ON THE RAILROAD
Freddie Firefly did not intend to go into the village itself. He expected to travel only as far as the railroad tracks, where they curved around a bend in the river before stretching straight away towards the town.
Though he spent a much longer time in making the journey than old Mr.
Crow ever took, Freddie at last reached the railroad, where he promptly sat himself down between the rails to wait for a train. And there Freddie Firefly stayed all alone, in the dark, with nothing to keep from feeling forlorn except the croaking of a band of noisy frogs in a pool near-by.
After a while Freddie began to grow so weary of his new task that he wished he had never taken Mrs. Ladybug"s advice.
"I don"t believe I like working," he said with a sigh, as he thought of the good time his family was having at that very moment, dancing in Farmer Green"s meadow.
And then all at once he heard a faint whistle, far off down the valley.
And a little later a low rumble caught his ear--a rumble which grew louder and louder until at last it turned into a roar, just as a stream of light shot around the curve in the track ahead of him, which followed the bend of the river.
Freddie Firefly was startled. He couldn"t think what made that long lane of light. And he was about to jump into the bushes and hide when he saw all at once that it was exactly what he had been waiting for.
"It"s a train!" he cried aloud. And he began flashing his light bravely while he swayed from side to side, for Mrs. Ladybug had told him that he must swing his light--if he expected to stop the train.
And all the while the train tore on towards Freddie Firefly. To his great surprise it showed not the slightest sign of stopping. And in spite of what Mrs. Ladybug had said, Freddie Firefly began to be afraid that it wasn"t going to pause at all.
He soon saw that if he did not do something quickly the train would run over him. But by the time he had made up his mind to jump off the track, out of harm"s way, it was too late for him to escape in that fashion.
So Freddie Firefly crawled hurriedly into a c.h.i.n.k beneath the railroad tie on which he had been sitting. And with a horrible scream the train thundered over him. To Freddie"s dismay it paid no heed to his flashing light, though he thought it must surely have seen that signal.
Those were terrible moments for Freddie Firefly, while the train was pa.s.sing above him. The frightful noise, the trembling of the ground, the rush of the air--all those things made him wonder whether he could ever reach home again, alive and unharmed. He was even more scared than he had been when he found himself in the power of that dreadful creature, Jennie Junebug.
XXIII
WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
Even after the train had rushed shrieking into the village two miles away, and the echoes had grown still, Freddie Firefly cowered in his hiding-place on the railroad track, crouched in the c.h.i.n.k beneath one of the ties.
At last he crept out, trembling in every limb. But in spite of his terror he skipped off the track very spryly.
Safe at one side of the rails, which gleamed in the moonlight, Freddie felt himself all over, to make sure that he had broken no bones.
"I seem to be unhurt," he mused. "But never, never again will I listen to anything that Mrs. Ladybug says."
And having made himself that solemn promise, he hurried away toward Farmer Green"s meadow, which he reached just before dawn.
As he crossed the fields he thought that he smelled smoke. But he couldn"t see a blaze anywhere. And when he came to the meadow he was so eager to dance that he forgot to ask anybody if there had been a fire.
Luckily he arrived in time to take part in the last dance of the night.
And after the dance was over he astonished all his family with the strange tale that he told them.
Before going to their homes all Freddie"s relations gathered around him to listen to his story of the night"s adventure. And there were many "Ohs" and "Ahs" when he reached the point where the train ran over him.
"You"re lucky you didn"t have a leg cut off," his favorite cousin remarked, "though that wouldn"t have been so bad as losing a wing."
Freddie Firefly shuddered.
"Anyway, you"re better off than Mrs. Ladybug is," somebody piped up.
"Why, what"s happened to her?" Freddie Firefly inquired.
"Haven"t you heard?" several of his cousins cried.
"No! no!" he shouted.
"Her house caught fire to-night, while she was away from home," they explained.
"I thought I smelled smoke as I was coming back from the railroad,"
Freddie observed. And then a sad picture came into his mind.
"And Mrs. Lady bug"s children--" he began breathlessly.
"Oh! The neighbors saved them," his favorite cousin said. "They"re only slightly scorched. But their ma"s house is ruined."
Then, to everybody"s great surprise, Freddie Firefly began to dance up and down and sing with joy.
"Oh, I"m so glad! Oh, I"m so glad!" he chanted over and over again.
His relations could scarcely believe that he was quite himself.
"His fright on the railroad must have injured his mind," they said to one another. "Or perhaps the train ran over his head when he didn"t know it." They could think of no other reason for Freddie"s queer actions.
Always before he had seemed too kind-hearted to rejoice over another person"s ill luck.
"What do you mean?" three hundred voices shouted. "Why are you glad?"
"I"m glad I tried to stop the train," Freddie Firefly answered, "because now Mrs. Ladybug can"t say that I set her house on fire. She knows that I was working on the railroad to-night. And n.o.body can be in two places at the same time."
THE END.