Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels Part 31

"_Only a few more left!_" Pee-wee was yelling. "_One cent while they last! None genuine_----" and so on, and so on.

By that time I could see a freight train backing in toward us. It was coming very slow and a couple of men from it were running ahead to open the gates. It just crept along--hardly moved. There were men on top and one turning the brake handle.

One of them called out, "Watch your step there, you kid!"

"_They're all smoking hot!_" Pee-wee yelled, and never paid any attention to him.

"Brace your feet, Sonny," the man shouted.

Pee-wee didn't pay any attention, just kept marching up and down, waving the pan and yelling, "_There are no more tenderflops to be flopped! Your last chance! Get a flop_----"

And then, good morning sister Jane, there was just a little bunk and there was Pee-wee swinging the saucepan and trying to balance himself on one leg.

"_Get--get a flop----_" he was shouting.

And then, all of a sudden, around he went, and off the roof, _kerflop_ into the load of sawdust.

It was the end of a perfect day.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

ALL ABOARD

The sawdust was all wet on account of there being ice in that ice-house, and it stuck all over our young hero's clothes and face, so he looked as if he were covered with very coa.r.s.e sandpaper.

We hauled him out and stood him up, saucepan and all. Even he had a tenderflop with a big bite out of it in one hand, and it was all covered with wet sawdust like some new kind of frosting. The crowd went crazy. I thought one of those trainmen would have a fit, he laughed so hard.

I said, "Never mind, Kid, you died for a good cause; only don't open your mouth, or you'll swallow about a quart of sawdust."

Oh, boy, it makes me laugh whenever I think of it. Westy had a headache from laughing. His mother said it was from eating tenderflops, but _I_ was the one that heard him laugh.

Anyway, that was the end of our adventures.

We cleaned our young hero up and brushed him off, but every time he spoke that night, he said he tasted sawdust.

The train people fixed our coupling and in about an hour we were rolling merrily out through the gates on the end of that long freight train. I guess it couldn't have been Number Twenty-three, because nothing happened. Anyway, I bet the profiteers were glad to get rid of us.

Pee-wee said we "dealt them a mortal blow." Westy said we "felled them to the ground with a frying pan."

Anyway, we had twenty-seven dollars, counting what we made out of the movie show, and not counting the fifty that Mr. Temple had sent us. That wasn't so bad when you remember that we had only forty-two cents when we started.

Sometime that night we were left in the freight yards at Jersey City, but we were all too sleepy to notice anything. Anyway, what's the use of being awake when you're in Jersey City. Early in the morning, a Northern local picked us up, and pretty soon we were rattling along the sh.o.r.e of our own river. You can bet it looked good to us. At about half-past seven, we were left on the sidetrack near the Bridgeboro Station.

"All the commuters will be coming down for the seven fifty-two," Wig said "Let's get up on the roof and give them a Scout Sing."

It looked good, after that crazy trip, to see all the things that we knew so well. There was Bennett's candy store, and there was the Royal Movie Theatre just around the corner. Pretty soon people began straggling along for the seven fifty-two, and a lot of them stood about, gaping at our car with its sign.

Buffalo 398 Mls.--BREWSTER'S CENTER--N. Y. 30 Mls.

So we all got up on the roof and sat there in a row, singing. People down below waved to us and Connie's father shouted h.e.l.lo to us, but we got to singing so loud, we couldn't hear all the things that people said. Everybody down there knew us, and we knew they knew we were crazy, so we didn't care.

"_All together!_" Wig said.

"_Go!_" Connie shouted.

"We started out to wander, We never meant to roam; We went, because we went, And now we're home, we're home.

We're going to go to school, oh, joy!

But we're not in a hurry; We've got twenty-seven dollars and a railroad car; WE SHOULD WORRY!"

THE END