Jessie took her place on the stool set for her, flag in hand, Ezra standing close by, and presently there was a shrill whistle and next the train flew by.
“It is so exciting,” said Jessie turning a beaming face to her brothers.
“Humph!” exclaimed Walter in rather a dissatisfied way. He did not like it that Jessie should be having all the fun. “What about the accident?” he said turning to Ezra.
“There wasn’t none.”
“Well, I mean the one that nearly was.”
Ezra launched forth into an account of how the freight train from the west was on the track and a special was behind her. Somehow Bill Downs didn’t get the orders clear and backed into a siding just in time to avoid a crash. “Reversed, sir,” said Ezra. “Heard the special whistle at the cut and put on steam so he reached the siding in time to back. If he’d been a second later all would have been up.”
The children listened attentively. Bill Downs was a familiar figure to them, and his engine an old acquaintance, so his escape was of momentous interest.
After a little more railroad gossip the boys concluded it was time to return, as the sun was setting and the short afternoon was nearly over. “Come again, come again,” said Ezra, his eyes on Jessie who waved her hand to him till a turn in the road hid him from sight.
“I wish I had taken him some apples,” she said. “His trees have hardly any on them this year, and he is so fond of them.”
“We’ll take some to him to-morrow,” said Walter importantly. “You needn’t bother.”