“That will do, children, it’s time to be off.” Dr. Morton suited the action to the word by clucking to the team of bays he drove, and the procession started.
They reached the station in good time. Both Ernest and Chicken Little wanted to stay on their mounts and dash up beside the train, but their father forbade it.
“Those ponies have never been properly introduced to an engine, and I don’t wish to take you back in baskets. You can show off sufficiently going home.”
So the ponies were left with the teams at a safe distance from the railroad.
The train was twenty minutes late and it seemed an age to Chicken Little. “I don’t see why you always have to wait for nice things, while the unpleasant 84ones come along without ever being asked,” she complained.
“What about the ponies? Do you class them with the unpleasant things?” queried her father. “But here comes the train.”
Jane watched it puff in with a roar and a rattle and sundry bangs, her eyes strained for the first glimpse of Katy and Gertie, Alice and Dick. She really didn’t know which one she wanted to see worst.
“Bet Sherm will be the first one out,” said Ernest.
“Bet you Katy will!”
But it was Dick who hailed them first, before he turned to help down the little girls. Alice came next, with Sherm who was still rather bashful, bringing up the rear loaded down with satchels and lunch baskets. Katy and Gertie fell upon Chicken Little instantly and Alice had to embrace the whole bunch, because they kept on hugging and kissing Jane, laughing hysterically.