n papoose, or baby, while Ted dreamed he was on a
wild pony that wanted to roll over and over instead of galloping
straight on.

Suddenly there was a loud crash that sounded through the whole train.
The engine whistled shrilly and then came a jar that shook up everyone.
Teddy found himself rolling out of his berth and he grabbed the curtains
just in time to save himself.

"Oh, Daddy!" he cried, "what's the matter?"

"What is it?" called Jan from her berth, while women in the coach were
screaming and men were calling to one another.

"What is it, Dick?" cried Mrs. Martin.

"I think we've had a collision," answered her husband.

"Did our train bunk into another?" asked Ted.

"I'm afraid so," replied his father.

CHAPTER V

AT RING ROSY RANCH

There was so much noise in the sleeping-car where the Curlytops
and others had been peacefully traveling through the night, that, at
first, it was hard to tell what had happened.

All that anyone knew was that there had been a severe jolt--a "bunk"
Teddy called it--and that the train had come to a sudden stop. So
quickly had it stopped, in fact, that a fat man, who was asleep in a
berth just behind Mr. Martin, had tumbled out and now sat in the aisle
of the car, gazing about him, a queer look on his sleepy face, for he
was not yet fully awake.

"I say!" cried the fat man. "Who pushed me out of bed?"

Even though they were much frightened, Mrs. Martin and some of the other
men and women could not help laughing at this. And the laughter did
more to quiet them than anything else.

"Well, I guess no one here is much hurt--if at all," said Daddy Martin,
as he put on a pair of soft slippers he had ready in the little hammock
that held his clothes inside the berth. "I'll go and see if I can find
out what the matter is."

"An', Daddy, bring me suffin t'eat!" exclaimed Trouble, poking his head
out between the curtains of the berth where he had been sleeping with
his mother when the collision happened.

"There's one boy that's got sense," said a tall thin man, who was
helping the fat man to get to his feet. "He isn't hurt, anyhow."

"Thank goodness, no," said Mrs. Martin, who, as had some of the other
women, had on a dressing gown. Mrs. Martin was looking at Trouble, whom
she had taken up in her arms. "He hasn't a scratch on him," she said,
"though I heard him slam right against the side of the car. He was next
to the window."

"It's a mercy we weren't all of us