CHARLIE LEARNS THE TRAFFIC LAWS
NOW that Charlie had an automobile, you may be sure that he drove in it every single day—that is every day that the sun was shining, for, of course, he could not drive in the automobile when it was raining!
In the mornings, when his Mother and his Auntie were busy in the house, Charlie used to drive up and down the garden path; but in the afternoons, when his Mother and his Auntie went for a walk, he drove beside them in his automobile, and Bingo always came too.
Bingo was growing to be a big little puppy—he no longer drank his milk out of a bottle. Oh, dear, no! Bingo could lap up his milk as well as any grown-up dog. He had a saucer to himself just like Topsy and Jane, and Charlie gave him his breakfast every morning and his dinner and his supper at the same time that he gave Jane and Topsy theirs.
You may be sure that Charlie enjoyed driving in his automobile with Bingo prancing beside him. But though Charlie drove his automobile every morning and every afternoon, he did not really know how to drive it at all! No indeed! Charlie always wanted to pedal so fast that he paid no attention to his steering, and the automobile went wiggly, wiggly all over the place. When he was driving in the garden Charlie never could keep to the path, he would pedal so fast that the automobile would run up on the grass and into the flower beds. And when he was out on the sidewalk with his Mother and his Auntie, the automobile would zigzag from left to right and from right to left in a most pe-cul-iar way.
His Mother and his Auntie said to him again and again, “Don’t pedal so fast, Charlie. Go slower and try to steer properly, some day you will crash into a lamppost and maybe break your automobile all to pieces.” But Charlie did not listen. He just went on pedaling as fast as ever he could and paid no attention to his steering at all.
One day his Mother and his Auntie were walking along the sidewalk and Charlie was driving in front in his automobile, while Bingo pranced along, sometimes beside Charlie, and sometimes running back to see what Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie were doing. Charlie was pedaling away as fast as ever he could and his automobile was going wiggly, wiggly all over the sidewalk.
Quite a little way in front, an old gentleman was walking, and he was on the outer edge of the sidewalk, as was right and proper for him to be. He was looking at his newspaper and he did not know that Charlie was driving toward him, paying no attention to his steering and zigzagging from left to right and from right to left again—when suddenly, Charlie’s automobile went crash! Bang! straight into the old gentleman! That was dreadful!
The old gentleman stopped short, and, when he had got his breath, he said, “Don’t you know that automobiles should keep to the right? Or is it possible that you are driving an automobile and don’t know the traffic laws?”
Of course Charlie apologized very politely to the old gentleman for bumping into him, and then he had to say that he knew nothing about the traffic laws at all. This made Charlie feel very much ashamed.
“Dear me!” said the old gentleman. “That is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard! To own an automobile, and not to know the traffic laws!”
By this time Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie had come up and it was very surprising—the old gentleman seemed to know them both very well. He shook hands with them both and said, “This young man has just been telling me that he does not know the traffic laws, though I have often watched him out of my window driving his automobile, and the way he zigzags up and down the pavement would be enough for him to have his license taken away if a policeman were to see him!”
Charlie felt very sad when he heard this. He had a beautiful license number on the back of his automobile and he thought it would be a dreadful thing if a policeman were to take it away because he did not know the traffic laws.
Then the old gentleman said, “I have an automobile of my own, and it is a big one that runs with gasoline. I would be very glad to take you for a drive this afternoon and teach you every traffic law there is, if your Mother will let you come with me. I live quite near here, so we could start right away.”
Of course Charlie’s Mother said at once that she would be delighted if the old gentleman, whose name was Mr. Armstrong, would take Charlie for a drive in his automobile.
Suddenly Bingo, who had been jumping around as usual, went straight up to Mr. Armstrong and stood up on his hind legs as if begging to go too.
Then Mr. Armstrong said, “Is that your puppy?” And Charlie said, “NO, that is my dog. His name is Bingo! He does not like to be called a puppy. May he come with us too?”
Mr. Armstrong looked doubtful. He said, “Bingo looks very much like a puppy to me, and puppies are apt to get into mischief; but if you are careful to keep him on his leash and hold on tightly to him, you may take him with us.”
You may be sure that Charlie felt very much excited at the thought of driving in a real automobile and learning the traffic laws just like a grown-up person.
He and his Mother and his Auntie went home and put Charlie’s automobile in the back hall while Mr. Armstrong went round to his garage to get his automobile. Soon he drove up in it and Charlie climbed in, holding Bingo firmly by the leash so that he should not get into mischief.
Mr. Armstrong said that they had better drive downtown as there was such a lot of traffic there and Charlie would be able to watch the policeman handle the traffic. On the way Mr. Armstrong told Charlie all about the traffic laws and the reason for every one. He told him how an automobile must never pass a street car when it has stopped to let off passengers, and how an automobile driver must always hold his arm out when he is going round a corner, so that people crossing the street can see in which direction he is going.
It was all very interesting and Charlie kept a strict lookout to see if all the automobiles they passed were observing the traffic laws.
At last they reached the business section of the city, where there are so many automobiles and street cars and carts that a policeman has always to stand in the middle of the road to direct the traffic; otherwise people would never be able to cross the street in safety at all.
Charlie thought that the policeman looked very grand standing all by himself in the middle of the road. And whenever he blew his whistle, either the crosstown traffic or the uptown and downtown traffic in turn was stopped, as if by magic, to let the other have the right of way. Then the people on the sidewalk all crossed together in a crowd, for they knew that the automobiles and street cars would not go on again until the policeman blew his whistle.
When Mr. Armstrong wanted to stop outside a shop and it was on the left side of the street, he drove all the way to the next corner and he waited there until the policeman could let him turn his car around and drive back so that the shop was on his right and he could stop his car close to the sidewalk just in front of the shop. It was a confectioner’s shop and they both went in and Mr. Armstrong ordered chocolate and sponge cake for them both. It was delicious! While they were in the confectioner’s Bingo was left tied up in the automobile. He did not like it at all and he called out “Yap, yap, yap!” at the top of his lungs until Charlie and Mr. Armstrong came back.
At last it was time to go home. When they had driven into the main street again and Charlie was turning his head this way and that, so as not to miss a single thing that was going on, he was so interested that he forgot all about Bingo. Indeed, he almost let go of his leash, he was holding it so loosely—when, suddenly, what do you think? Bingo gave one yank at the leash and jumped right out of the automobile! Yes, he did!
All the automobiles were slowing up for the crossing, and the policeman was standing quite close, but at any moment he might signal for them to go on again.
It was dreadfully dangerous for Bingo to be all by himself in the middle of that crowded street with automobiles and street cars, and carts and trucks all moving along. Charlie was so frightened that he called out, “Mr. Policeman, Mr. Policeman!” and the policeman looked at him, and he saw Bingo at the same moment and guessed what had happened.
He blew his whistle three times, and all the automobiles stopped, those going uptown and downtown, and those going crosstown, they all stopped immediately. Then the policeman tried to catch Bingo, but he was so frightened that he crawled right under an automobile, and he would not come out when the policeman called him.
So the policeman came up to Charlie and said, “You had better come along with me. If you call your dog, he will know your voice and come out when you call him.”
Charlie took the policeman’s hand and they went in and out among the automobiles and carts and trucks and busses, which were all standing perfectly still, till they came to the automobile under which Bingo was hiding. When Bingo saw Charlie and heard him call “Bingo, Bingo!” he came crawling out and he was so glad to see Charlie that he jumped high in the air, wagging his tail and barking, “Yap, yap, yap!”
As soon as Charlie and Bingo were safe in Mr. Armstrong’s automobile, the policeman blew his whistle and all the traffic, which had been held up to rescue Bingo, started again. And Charlie held Bingo as tight as ever he could, so that he should not jump out again. But I don’t think that Bingo would have done so, even if he could have, he had been so frightened when he was hiding under the automobile, with so many trucks and carts and cars around him. And he was right to be frightened, for he would have been in great danger if the policeman had not blown his whistle just at the right moment.
And now Charlie knew for himself how very important the traffic laws are, for if one single automobile had disobeyed the policeman when he blew three blasts on his whistle and had not stopped immediately, Bingo might have been run over!
So, ever after that, when Charlie was in his automobile he was always careful to follow every one of the traffic laws that he had learned.
He never pedaled faster than he could steer, and he always kept on the right side of the pavement so as not to run into people by accident. When he came to a corner, he always stretched out his arm to show the direction he was going in. And, when a street car stopped in the middle of the road to let off passengers, Charlie always stopped too, until it had gone on again.
Yes, Charlie followed the traffic laws so carefully that the policeman, who always stood at the Park gate, noticed it; and he said to him one day, “As soon as you are sixteen years old, you can come to me, and I will see that you get a license to drive a real automobile. If everybody obeyed the traffic laws as well as you do, there would never be any accidents at all.”
