‘Through the looking-glass,’ said I. ‘Upon which the White Knight fell head foremost into a hole——’
‘And kept on saying “Plenty of practice,”’ said Legs.
‘It’s easier if you wave your arms,’ said she. ‘Oh, there’s a train coming. Where’s the gum?’
Legs had the gum—a small penny bottle—and Helen hastily gummed a penny to the rail, and we all retired to the side of the line.
If you merely lay a penny on the rail, the chances are that the first wheel that goes over it causes it to jump, and it falls off, whereas if you gum it——
There was a wild maniac shriek from the engine, suddenly dropping an octave as it passed us, and the huge train, towering high above us, thundered by with rattle of wheels and the throbbing oscillation of very high speed. A dozen bits of paper came trundling and dancing after it. The rear of the van telescoped itself into a tiny square, and the signal just above us, which had been down to let the train pass, shot up a warning, right-angled arm.
‘Oh, well over sixty,’ said Legs, with deep appreciation, ‘and there’s the penny sitting as tight as, as—I don’t know. Lord, how hot!’
The penny had already been under half the wheels of four trains, and was so flattened that it was of knife-edge sharpness.
‘If you stropped it a little, you could shave with it,’ said Helen. ‘What babies you are!’