Charlie and His Puppy Bingo

by Helen Hill; Violet Maxwell

Soon the conductor came walking down the aisle and he took everybody’s ticket. He was a very grand-looking man; he was tall, and stout, and he had a beautiful blue uniform on. He soon came to the seat where Charlie and his Daddy were sitting, and he took the tickets. Yes, the conductor took all the tickets and he stuck Charlie’s Daddy’s ticket in his hatband, but as his Mother and his Auntie had no hatbands, he stuck their tickets into the top of the seat in front of them. Then he took Charlie’s ticket, and he stuck it in Charlie’s hatband. Charlie felt very proud, and he would not take his hat off. No, he kept his hat on all the time because he wanted everybody to see that he had a ticket in his hatband just like all the other men.

Then Charlie said to his Daddy, “Daddy, what ex-act-ly makes the train go?”

And his Daddy said, “It’s the steam that makes the engine work, and it is the engineer and the fireman who look after the steam and the engine.” Then Charlie said, “What I want to know is ex-act-ly what the fireman and the engineer do when they are making the engine go.”

But what do you think? His Daddy did not know ex-act-ly what they did—he said that he had never ridden on an engine in his life, so how could he know what they did? And Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did not know either. That was very surprising.

Well, after they had been in the big train for about a whole hour, they came to a station where there were a lot of tracks. This station was called a junction, because there were so many tracks.

Some of the tracks went to the North and some to the South and some to the East and some to the West. The train that Charlie and his Daddy and his Auntie and his Mother were on was going toward the West; but now they wanted to go to the North, so they had to change trains and go on a train that was going toward the North.

The train was already waiting on its own track. It was a very little train, it had only two coaches!

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie and Jane and Topsy got into the train, and they took Bingo with them, because, as it was such a little unimportant train, the conductor said that Bingo could travel in the day coach instead of being tied up in the baggage car, and Bingo was very glad. But Charlie and his Daddy waited on the platform till it was time for the train to start, and they looked at all the interesting things about them.

Then a man came up. He wore overalls and a peaked cap. And—you never can guess who it was? It was the fireman who helped work the engine of the train they were going to take. And what do you think? The fireman knew Charlie’s Daddy! Yes, the fireman came up to them, and said to his Daddy, “Hello, Bob!” Bob was his Daddy’s name that his Mother and his Auntie always called him! And his Daddy said, “Why—Hello, Bill,” and they shook hands.

Charlie was very much surprised that the fireman and his Daddy knew each other, but it was not so very surprising after all. The fireman lived in the village where Charlie’s Daddy had lived when he was a little boy, and where Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie were going to live for a whole month, and his Daddy and the fireman had gone to the same school when they were little boys!