Dave evidently had his passengers well trained. None of the children moved after they had formed themselves into a straight line. They waited to see what Dave wanted them to do.
Elizabeth Ann and Doris stepped into the bus. It had long seats down either side and these were about half filled with boys and girls. Some were older—they afterward learned that these were pupils in the higher grades.
“Glad to know you,” said Dave from behind his wheel. “Sit down anywhere you like. Now then, line move up—one at a time and anyone who crowds goes to the foot of the class.”
One by one the boys and girls filed into the bus and took seats. Elizabeth Ann, watching, saw at once how wise Dave was to make them enter one at a time. If they had tried to board the bus in a struggling crowd, it would mean only confusion and delay. Dave kept an eagle eye on the entering line and no one dared push his neighbor. Elizabeth Ann saw that the girls came first—Dave had taught the boys to wait their turn.
“All right,” said Dave, when the last pupil was safely in. “I hope you’ll all study your books and improve your time on the way to school.”
This was a joke and everyone laughed at it. Of course there were no lessons to be studied the first day of school. Instead the boys and girls talked to each other, and as the bus made a great noise the children had to shout to make themselves heard. Dave did not seem to mind the noise—— Roger told Elizabeth Ann that he was used to it, since he had driven the school bus for three years. But while Dave didn’t mind noise, he wouldn’t allow anyone to leave his seat and play in the aisle. It was the rule—Roger told Elizabeth Ann this, too—that if anyone left his seat Dave would stop the bus at once, and refuse to go ahead until the boy or girl sat down again.
“We haven’t any too much time and if Dave stops even once or twice, we may be late,” Roger shouted to Elizabeth Ann. “Once the whole bus load was late, and we had to stay an hour after school. That made us miss the bus home and we all had to walk. Dave won’t stand for any skylarking, and the kids know he means what he says.”
The bus made two more stops, picking up four boys and two girls at one place, and three girls and three boys at another. Then it was comfortably filled and Dave drove steadily and at a fair rate of speed until they came in sight of a large brick building with a fenced in yard in front of it, and a flag on the flag pole near the gate.
“There’s our school,” said Roger as the bus stopped.