said it just in fun. Their father had told them that water was put
in an engine just as water was put in the tea kettle--to boil and make
steam.

"That's what the train stopped for," Bunny went on; "so the engine could
get some water. And I'm glad it stopped, so we could get off. I was
tired of riding in that old car."

"So was I," Sue agreed. "It's lots nicer out here. But, Bunny," she
said, "it's going to be night--how are we going to get back?" and she
hugged Toddle closer to her.

Bunny, too, was beginning to wonder about this. He could see that it was
getting dark. He looked down the track, and the engine whistled twice.
This meant that it was going to start off again and pull the train. The
man on the pile of coal in the tender pushed back the iron water pipe,
and then the freight car wheels began to squeak and turn.

As Bunny and Sue stood beside the track the train started to move, and
soon it was pulling away, leaving the two children alone. It was a
rather desolate place, with fields on one side and a patch of woods on
the other. But as the train clacked on down the track, out of sight,
Bunny caught a view of a small shanty, or little house, near the water
tank. And as he pointed this out to Sue a man came from the little brown
house and looked up and down.

"Oh, there's somebody," Sue cried, almost dropping the kitten in her
excitement. "Maybe he can tell us how to get back to mother, Bunny
Brown!"

"Maybe he can," the little boy agreed. "Let's go and ask him."

"Do you know who he is?" Sue asked.

"I guess he's the switchman, and he tends to the water tower," Bunny
answered. At home they knew a switchman who lived in a little shanty
just like this. He lowered and raised gates as trains came and went. But
there were no gates here in this lonely place.

But Bunny and Sue knew this person was a switchman, and as he saw them
coming down the track he stared in wonder at the children.

"Well, what are you two little ones doing here?" asked the jolly
switchman as he greeted Bunny and Sue. His smile was jolly, his voice
was jolly, and he seemed quite a jolly person all over. "Where did you
come from?" he asked.

"Off that train," answered Bunny.

"What? That freight train?" asked the switchman, who was also the
water-tender. He had charge of the pump that filled the tank alongside
of the track.

"Yes, we were on that freight train," Bunny answered, "and we jumped off
when it stopped."

"Well, of a