es the nuts!"

"Could I please have a drink?" asked Sue.

"Oh, yes! I forgot about that!" exclaimed Nutty. "Nuts make you thirsty,
too. Well, I filled my bottle of water at the railroad tank just before
I got into this car, so it's fresh. I'll give you a drink."

From a large bottle he poured water into a battered tin cup which was
among his possessions.

"It's clean," said Nutty, as he passed the cup to Sue. "Your mother
would not be afraid to let you drink it. I'm a ragged tramp, but I keep
clean."

And indeed the water in the cup was clean and fresh, and Sue drank
eagerly, as did Bunny. Then, their thirst satisfied for a time, the
children sat down to the strange picnic. They called it at the time and
afterward--the "Freight Car Picnic."

Nutty was kind and good to the children, though he was a ragged tramp,
and after their first feeling of fright was over, Bunny and Sue had
quite a jolly time.

And when you are hungry nuts make a very good meal. In fact, nuts are a
form of food. Squirrels and other animals can live on nothing but nuts
and fruits, and though growing boys and girls need more than this, they
could live for some time on nuts alone.

"I'm a great nut eater," explained Nutty, as he helped Bunny to more
pecans from the tin box. "I tramp around this part of the South, and
gather nuts wherever I can. That's why the other tramps call me Nutty.
When I was young I used to eat a lot of meat and potatoes with bread
and butter. But now I eat nuts."

"Did you ever eat cake?" asked Sue, as she munched some brown peanuts,
for Nutty had roasted peanuts among his store.

"Cake? I haven't heard that word for years!" laughed Nutty. "I don't
believe I'd know a piece of cake if I saw it hopping up the road to meet
me. Nuts are about all I need, now I'm getting old. Have some more!"

He did have a lot of nuts, and Bunny and Sue had good appetites for
them. Toddle, the pussy, nestled in Sue's lap and purred. And the
freight train rumbled on and on.

Where were Bunny and Sue going?

CHAPTER XV

LEFT ALONE

Some thought of where the train might be taking them must have come into
the minds of Bunny and Sue for, after they had eaten as many of the nuts
as they wanted and had had another drink of water from Nutty's bottle,
Bunny asked the tramp:

"Do you know where we are going, Mr. Nutty?"

"Why, no, I can't exactly say I do," answered the old tramp, with a
smile on his face. Bunny and Sue could se