Uncle Ben soon came back, saying he had seen the conductor, who was glad to know that Tom and Lola had met their friends from Silver Lake. The train journey from Cresco was not a long one, and children often traveled in the care of the train conductors, when their fathers or mothers had no time to go along.
“Oh, we’ll have packs of fun!” cried Ted to Tom, as they started for the gasolene launch. “We have a bungalow, and a tent, and lots of boats and there’s a merry-go-round and a shoot-the-chutes, and——”
“And we’re going fishing,” broke in Jan. “And Uncle Ben is going to show me how to sail a boat, and I got stuck in the mud and we played Trouble was a cake of ice and—and—everything!”
She had to stop then, she was so out of breath.
“Oh, say, that’s great!” cried Tom. “Your mother was awful good to ask us to come out and have a vacation here.”
“And we didn’t know a thing about it till we saw you get off the train,” said Teddy. “And now tell us about Skyrocket.”
“Oh, yes! Where is he?” asked the little Curlytop girl.
“Well, I don’t know where he is now,” Tom said. “We saw him just when we were at the station in Cresco waiting for the train. A gypsy wagon came along—all looking-glass and painted red, you know—and I heard a bark inside, a dog’s bark.”
“I heard it, too,” said Lola, “and I said it sounded just like your dog Skyrocket.”
“Yes, she said that,” agreed Tom. “And then we were going to run out to the wagon to see, and, all of a sudden, a dog stuck his head out the back door and it was Skyrocket!”