ny thing else. I"--

But at that instant there came to him a great jolt and a shock; and Ford
found himself tumbled all in a heap, on the seat where his feet had
been. Then came bounce after bounce, and the sound of breaking glass,
and then a crash.

"Off the track," shouted Ford, as he sprang to his feet. "I wouldn't
have missed it for any thing. I do hope, though, there hasn't anybody
been killed."

In the tremendous excitement of the moment he could hardly have told how
he got out of that car; but it did not seem ten seconds before he was
standing beside the engineer and conductor of the train, looking at the
battered engine, as it lay upon its side in a deep ditch. The
baggage-car, just behind it, was broken all to pieces, but the
passenger-cars did not seem to have suffered very much; and nobody was
badly hurt, as the engineer and fireman had jumped off in time.

There had been very little left of the pig; but the conductor and the
rest seemed much disposed to say unkind things about him, and about his
owner, and about all the other pigs they could think of.

"This train'll never get in on time," said Ford to the conductor, a
little later. "How'll I get to the city?"

The railway man was not in the best of humors; and he answered, a little
groutily, "Well, young man, I don't suppose the city could get along
without you over night. The junction with the main road is only two
miles ahead, and if you're a good walker you may catch a train there."

Some of the other passengers, none of whom were much more than "badly
shaken up," or down, had made the same discovery; and in a few minutes
more there was a long, straggling procession of uncomfortable people,
marching by the side of the railway-track, in the hot sun. They were
nearly all of them making unkind remarks about pigs, and the faculty
they had of not getting out of the way.

The conductor was right, however; and nearly all of them managed to walk
the two miles to the junction in time to go in on the other train.

Ford Foster was among the first to arrive, and he was likely to reach
home in season, in spite of the pig and his outrageous conduct.

As for his danger, he had hardly thought of that; and he again and again
declared to himself that he would not have missed so important an
adventure for any thing he could think of. It almost sounded once or
twice as if he took to himself no small amount of personal credit, not
to say glory, for having been in