pen as wide as he needed. "I'll leave 'em my store of nuts and the
water to drink. I'll have to leave Toddle, too."

The thought of leaving behind his little kitten made the old tramp feel
rather sad. But he knew that if he picked Toddle up and gathered
together his tin boxes and the bottles Bunny and Sue would guess that he
intended to go away from them.

"I'll just leave everything--even the pussy," thought Nutty. "I can
easily get more nuts and bottles of water. I'll jump off as soon as the
train slows up a little more. I don't want to be arrested as a
kidnapper."

Watching his chance, and noticing that the train was moving quite slowly
now, Nutty thrust himself half way out of the crack. He glanced toward
Bunny and Sue. They were trying to make the kitten stand up on his hind
legs, and did not see the tramp.

"This is my chance!" thought the ragged man, with a last, kind look
toward the children. "I'm sorry to leave you all alone," he went on,
"but it's better so. And I'll send help to you if I can."

A moment later he jumped from the moving freight car and landed on the
ground, running along a little way, and then darting into some bushes
beside the track so no railroad men would see him.

"There! I'm safe!" thought Nutty. "Bunny and Sue will be all right, too,
I hope!"

And the little boy and girl, left alone in the freight car, were being
carried farther and farther away, for the train did not stop. As soon as
Nutty had leaped off it started up again.

CHAPTER XVI

THE JOLLY SWITCHMAN

For some time Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know that they had
been left alone. They were playing with the kitten and they supposed
their tramp friend Nutty was looking out of the partly opened door,
watching for a chance to get them off the train. It was not until Sue
grew tired of setting Toddle up on his hind legs, only to have the
kitten slump over in a heap, that she looked up and saw the door opened
wider and Nutty gone.

"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Look!"

Bunny, who was taking some more nuts from one of the tin boxes the tramp
had left in the corner, glanced at his sister.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Nutty is gone!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, Bunny! I guess he fell out of the
door! It's open wider! Oh, poor Nutty has falled out!"

Bunny made his way to the crack, and, holding to the edge of the door,
he looked out. He could see that it was late afternoon, and as the sun
was setting Bunny kne