"Why does it cost that much?" demanded Vi, forgetting the Italian flagman and his earrings, as Russ hurried her toward the car steps. "Are you sure about the third of a cent, Russ?"
Laddie looked back and waved his hand to the man who wore earrings. "Good-bye!" he called to the man.
"Good-a-bye!" cried the flagman in return, smiling very broadly. "Good-a-bye!"
"Why does he talk so funny?" asked Vi, panting, as Russ helped her up the car steps and into the vestibule.
"He talks broken English," said Russ in return. "Come on, Laddie."
Vi remembered that answer, and later, when she was helping Laddie relate the story of their adventure to Mother Bunker and daddy and the other children, she declared that the man with the earrings was "a broken Englishman," and would have it that Russ told her so.
It had been a very exciting time, both for the twins when they were lost and for the rest of the family on the train. Vi and Laddie could not stop talking about it. And, really, it had been a very important adventure in their small experience.
"That man with the earrings thought he knew us, too," Vi said finally.
"Of course he didn't know you," Rose observed.
"He thought we were Mrs. Bam—Bam—— Laddie, whose little boy and girl did that man think we were?"