And if, once in a while, Patty gave her a spanking or put her to bed in the middle of the day, why, that was no more than happened to Patty herself, once in a while, and so of course Polly could find no fault.
Polly liked Uncle Charles, too. Hadn’t he given her a pretty face and a sweet smile? So when Uncle Charles tucked Polly under his arm to carry her to the express office, Polly gave one or two gentle bumps on the lid of the box just to show that she was friendly. But if Uncle Charles heard them, no doubt he thought that Polly was simply slipping about, and that he must carry the box more carefully.
It was not pleasant in the express office, Polly found. There was a strong smell of tobacco smoke that sifted straight into Polly’s box, and there seemed to be men all about, with loud voices, who tossed packages back and forth, and hauled heavy boxes from one side of the room to the other. Polly herself was tossed up on a shelf where, after a moment or two, she snuggled down in her coverlet and sensibly fell fast asleep.
She was awakened after a long, long nap by being lifted off the shelf. She thought it must be morning, the express office was so busy and noisy and so many people were hurrying to and fro.
Then came a great roaring and puffing and snorting just outside the office door, and Polly knew in a moment what it was.
‘It is the train,’ thought Polly, who had never heard one before. ‘That is just the sound Uncle Charles made when he played train with Patty the night he came to supper at our house.’
And Polly was right. It was the train.
Now the bustling grew greater than before. Trunks and heavy boxes were hoisted aboard the train. Packages, large and small, were flung on helter-skelter, and among them was Polly, who went flying through the air and luckily landed face-up on top of a trunk, where it took a whole moment to get her breath again. But Polly didn’t mind being tossed about, not one bit. She thought it was exciting, and much better than lying in the smoky express office on a shelf.
Then the train whistled and puffed and panted and was off.
Roar, roar, roar! Clatter, clatter, clatter!