Part 8 (1/2)

”No'm, I won't,” answered the colored man. ”Ah'll get yo' d.i.c.kie fo'

you!”

”Maybe it's a little child!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown to her husband. ”You'd better go and help her, Walter! That porter is so slow! Go and save d.i.c.kie!”

CHAPTER VII

THE PLANTATION

Mr. Brown knew how he and his wife would worry if anything should happen to Bunny or Sue, so, with this thought in mind, he hurried to the end of the car to do what he could in the rescue of d.i.c.kie.

Mrs. Brown stayed with the two children, but she was so anxious to help the woman who had called out about d.i.c.kie that she made up her mind to go to the aid of her husband as soon as Bunny and Sue were settled in their seats.

As for Mr. Brown, as he hastened toward that end of the parlor car where some one was begging the porter not to let d.i.c.kie be harmed, he saw the woman who was so excited. She was a large woman, wearing a wide-brimmed hat trimmed with many ostrich feathers which nodded and swayed as she moved about.

”Oh, d.i.c.kie! d.i.c.kie! Where did you go?” this woman cried, clasping her hands. ”Why didn't you stay with me? Now you'll be killed, I'm sure you will! Or else you'll jump off the train and be left behind! Oh, porter, close the door so d.i.c.kie can't get off!”

”Yes'm. De do' am done closed!” said the colored man. ”Ah'll git yo'

d.i.c.kie fo' you ef you-all jest waits a minute!”

”Perhaps I can help,” suggested Mr. Brown, coming up at that moment, and looking about in the narrow pa.s.sageway and in the men's smoking room for a sight of some little child who might have wandered away from his mother.

”Oh, if you only can get him!” exclaimed the large woman with the big hat. ”I had him in my arms, but he jumped out--”

”Jumped out of your arms!” exclaimed Mr. Brown. ”I should think he would have been hurt.”

”Oh, no, he often does that,” said the woman. ”He always lands on his feet.”

”What a strange child!” thought Mr. Brown. ”He must be training for a circus performer.”

”He jumped out of my arms and ran in there,” went on the woman, and she pointed to the smoking room, which, just then, was empty. It was a room containing several leather chairs, a leather settee across one end, and a wash basin in one corner.

”Ah'll git him in jest a minute,” said the porter, who was putting some clean towels in a rack over the basin. ”He must be under the long seat.”

”I'll bring him out,” offered Mr. Brown, getting down on his hands and knees to look under the long leather seat at one end of the smoking compartment. He remembered a time when Sue had thus crawled under a sofa at home and what a time he had to get her to come out.

”Oh, d.i.c.kie, why did you do it?” wailed the woman. ”Are you sure he didn't fall off the train?” she asked.

”No'm,” answered the porter. ”n.o.body, man, woman or chile, got off dish yeah car after it started. I shet de do' too quick for dat! But I didn't see anybody come in heah!”

”This is where he came,” said the woman, following Mr. Brown into the smoking room. ”Oh, I do hope he is under the seat.”

By this time the father of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue was able to see under the leather seat. But, to his surprise, he saw no little boy or girl there. All he caught sight of was a white poodle dog, cowering back in the corner.

”There's no d.i.c.kie here--only a dog,” said Mr. Brown.

”That's d.i.c.kie!” cried the woman. ”Oh, dear d.i.c.kie! are you there? I was afraid my precious was lost forever! Oh, d.i.c.kie, come out!”