The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann | Page 3

before you try to find a
playmate," advised Mr. Robert gravely. "Mother put you in his charge,
didn't she? And that means you must ask him about things first."
"Mother and Daddy said the conductor would look after me," replied
Elizabeth Ann, finishing her toast and trying to untie her napkin. "I
didn't know his name till Caroline told me this morning. I was asleep
when Daddy put me in bed last night--did you know they call the beds
berths on a train? Mother woke me up when she said good-bye--she

was crying--"
Elizabeth Ann winked her eyes very fast indeed.
"I'll untie that napkin for you," offered Mr. Robert. "Who is Caroline?"
"Caroline is the girl who helped me get dressed," explained Elizabeth
Ann, getting out of her chair and turning around so that Mr. Robert
could reach the knot at the back of her neck. "She is a very nice girl.
She says she lives in Chicago. She helps the ladies fasten their dresses
and brings them smelling salts. Is it half-past seven yet? Mother and
Daddy said their ship was going to sail at half-past seven this morning."
Mr. Robert had unfastened the napkin and now he dabbed gently at the
blue eyes of the little wearer.
"I'm not crying," she insisted. "Could I see your watch? I can tell time
if I count the numbers."
Mr. Robert drew out his watch and held it toward her.
"It is a quarter past eight," he said cheerfully. "I'll tell you what to
do--you go get this big doll you speak of and come out with me on the
observation platform; you'll like that. I'll see Caroline and Mr. Hobart
and tell them where you will be, so that will be all right."
"What is an--an 'observation platform'?" asked Elizabeth Ann
curiously.
"The back porch of the train," was Mr. Robert's mysterious answer.
CHAPTER II
IN THE DAY COACH
The observation platform was like a back porch, Elizabeth Ann
admitted when she saw it, a back porch enclosed by a shiny brass
railing. It was delightful to sit in one of the wicker chairs and hold

Nancy, her doll, on her lap, and watch the gleaming rails of the railroad
track spin out behind them. She noticed that the tracks seemed to come
together at a point while she watched them, but Mr. Robert said that
they only looked that way.
Elizabeth Ann spent a happy morning on the platform and after lunch,
which she ate with Mr. Robert at his table, she took the advice of
Caroline and had a little nap. The motion of the train made her sleepy
earlier at night than usual in spite of the nap, and she went to bed soon
after dinner. She had meant to cry a little, for she did miss Mother very
much and she didn't want to cry where anyone could see her, for she
suspected that that would make kind Mr. Robert and Mr. Hobart
uncomfortable, but before she had stopped thinking about the funny
way one went to bed on a train-you remember she had been asleep
when they put her in the berth the first night and this time it was all
new to her-Elizabeth Ann was fast asleep.
"I wish I had a little girl to play with," she said to Caroline the next
morning.
She said it many times during the day. It was rather dreary for a little
girl all by herself, though she had Nancy to play with, and Caroline
read aloud to her from the story book Mother had packed in her bag.
Mr. Robert brought out a puzzle to amuse her, and Mr. Hobart showed
her how to make a vase from the tinfoil wrapped around a piece of
chocolate. The ladies in the car knitted and read and took long naps.
They did not pay much attention to her.
"I'm going to see if I can find that little girl with the red hat," she said
to herself that afternoon.
She had asked Mr. Hobart if she could go through into the other cars
and perhaps find a little girl to play with her. This was soon after
breakfast. The conductor had answered decidedly.
"No, you mustn't do that," he had said. "I'm responsible for you, and I
must know where you are. If you go running through the day coaches,
there's no telling what you'll get into."

But he had promised to take her through the train with him, and he had
kept his word. She told Mr. Robert all about it at lunch. Mr. Robert was
an old friend of Mr. Hobart's, it seemed, and indeed all the train people
apparently knew the little, white-haired man very well. Elizabeth Ann
supposed it was because he rode so often on