With a roar the second train approached, gliding swiftly past Bunny, Sue, and Uncle Tad seated in the sleigh alongside of the tracks. And as the children watched for the last car they saw the rear door of it open, and a colored porter, with his white jacket on, stood on the platform.
It was a chair car, and the porter had evidently been doing some sweeping, for he held in his hands a dustpan. This dustpan he had taken to the back door to empty, and, just as his car came near the sleigh in the snowdrift, the porter threw the dust, dirt, and other things from the pan into the air.
The train was going so fast that it made quite a breeze, and this wind carried the stuff from the dustpan into the very faces of Uncle Tad and Sue. Bunny, being on the outside of the seat, did not get any dust in his face.
"Oh!" cried Sue, as she felt the swirling wind and dust.
"That porter certainly was a careless fellow!" exclaimed Uncle Tad. "That dust nearly blinded me!" The old soldier held the reins in one hand, for Prince seemed ready to bolt again, and with the other hand Uncle Tad wiped the dust from the porter's pan out of his eyes.
Bunny had a glimpse of torn papers and other refuse from the car falling into the snowdrift near the sleigh.
"I guess he didn't mean to do it, Uncle Tad," the little boy said. "He wasn't looking this way when he emptied that dustpan."
"I wish he had been!" exclaimed the old soldier. "Did you get a lot of dust in your eyes, Sue?"
"Yes," answered the little girl. "But it's most gone now."
"How about you, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad.