The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann | Page 5

down on the little green
velvet sofa, "tell me about it."
The usual twinkle was gone from his kind eyes, and his voice was
stern.
Tears trickled down Elizabeth Ann's face as she told him about the little
girl in the red hat, and of her plan to get her to come and play with her.
"I wasn't going to stay in the other coach, she sobbed. "I was coming
right back in a minute. And I didn't know the girl was going to spill
grape-juice on me."
"Well, no," Mr. Hobart admitted more kindly, "I don't suppose you did.
But that really has nothing to do with it. I said you were not to go into
the other cars and you went. My orders are obeyed on this
train--suppose Caroline and Fred and the porters and brakemen all did
as they pleased, we couldn't run a train. It is like a ship, dear, only
instead of a captain we have a conductor. Mother and Daddy put their
little girl in my charge, didn't they?"
"Yes," whispered Elizabeth Ann.

"And I think they meant she should mind me," said Mr. Hobart gently.
"Look at me, Elizabeth Ann. When you are naughty at home, what
happens?"
"I have to go right to bed and have bread and milk to eat," she
answered in a very little voice.
"It's only four o'clock," said Mr. Hobart, glancing at his big gold watch.
"I think if you have only bread and milk for dinner tonight, we won't
say you must go to bed this afternoon. You're not going to do this again,
are you, dear?"
"Oh, no," Elizabeth Ann fingered the buttons on his blue coat timidly.
"I will be good, honestly I will."
"I'm sure of it," Mr. Hobart said, rising.
"Now ask Caroline to help you into a clean dress and try to have the
rest of the day a happy time."
Caroline was waiting to help her into a clean frock, and in half an hour
no traces of the grape-juice remained. But it was a very sober-faced
little girl who sat on the arm of Mr. Robert's seat a little later and
handled his silver and ivory chessmen.
"Don't look so serious," teased Mr. Robert, who did not know of the
trip into the day coach. "Do you think there will be chocolate ice-cream
for dinner to-night?"
"I can't have anything but bread and milk," sighed Elizabeth Ann,
"because I was naughty this afternoon."
Then she told Mr. Robert what had happened.
"Orders are orders," he said when she had finished. "What Mr. Hobart
says goes on his train. You'll have to wait till you get to New York to
have a little girl to play with, dear."

CHAPTER III
THE WHITE ELEPHANT
There were two more days on the train before Elizabeth Ann could
hope to see Aunt Isabel. The little girl grew tired of the motion of the
train, and even eating in the dining-car did not seem to be as much fun
as it had been at first. Kind Mr. Hobart did everything he could to
amuse her, and when the train stopped long enough at different stations,
he said that Elizabeth Ann might get out and run up and down the
platform. Once, when the train made a longer stop than usual, the big
conductor took her up to the engine and she shook hands with the
engineer, who was oiling the great panting engine that pulled the whole
train.
"I've got a little girl about your size at home," said the engineer. "She's
going on eight."
"I'm seven," answered Elizabeth Ann.
"Where is your little girl?"
"She's with her mother in Harvey," said the engineer. "That's a little
town in Pennsylvania. I reckon she'll be glad to see her daddy next
week."
Elizabeth Ann thought so, too, and all the way back to her car she
asked Mr. Hobart questions about the engineer and his little girl, They
found Mr. Robert waiting for them, and he said he had something to
talk over with Elizabeth Ann.
"You know I have to get off at Washington to-morrow," began Mr.
Robert when the conductor had gone off to see that everyone was
safely on the train before it should start. "And I want to give you
something to remember me by. I thought of a locket, but you have one,
haven't you?"
"Mother gave it to me," said Elizabeth Ann, and her hand flew to the

little round locket on the gold chain about her neck. "It has her picture
inside and Daddy's, too. Would you like to see them?"
"Very much," said Mr. Robert gravely. Elizabeth Ann pressed the little
spring that unhooked the chain and took the chain and locket off. Then
she pressed another spring in the