t of his kind and
thoughtful father. "I am sure he will, Vi. Daddy wouldn't leave us alone
on the railroad with no place to go and nothing to eat."

At this Vi was reminded that they had not eaten since breakfast, and
although it was not yet noon, she declared that she was starving!

"You can't be starving yet," Laddie told her, with scorn. "We haven't
been lost from the train long enough for you to be starving, Violet
Bunker."

"Well, Laddie, I just know we will starve here if the train doesn't come
back for us."

"Maybe another train will come along and we can buy something from the
candy boy. You 'member the candy boy on our train? I've got ten cents in
my pocket."

"Oh, have you? That will buy four lollipops--two for you and two for me.
I guess I wouldn't starve so soon if I had two lollipops," admitted Vi.

"I guess you won't starve," Laddie told her without much sympathy. "Now
we must climb down to the tracks and start after daddy's train."

"Do you suppose we can catch it? Will it stop and wait when daddy finds
out we're not on it? And are you _sure_ he'll come back looking for us?
Shall we get supper, do you s'pose, Laddie, just as soon as we get on
the train? For I'm awfully hungry!"

Her twin could not answer. Like the other Bunkers, he was nonplussed by
some of Vi's questions. Nor did he have much idea of how Daddy Bunker
was going to stop the train, which he supposed had gone ahead, and
return to meet Vi and him trudging along the railroad tracks.

CHAPTER XI

THE MAN WITH THE EARRINGS

The twins got out of the cut between the two hills after a time, and
then it _was_ long past noon and Laddie was hungry as well as Vi. It
seemed terrible to the Bunker twins to have money to spend and no way to
spend it. They might just as well have been on a desert island, like
that man Robinson Crusoe about whom Rose read to them.

"I know a riddle about that Robinson Crusoe man. Yes, I do!" suddenly
exclaimed Laddie.

"What is the riddle, Laddie? Do I know it?"

"You can try to guess it, Vi," said the eager little boy. "Now listen!
'How do we know Robinson Crusoe had plenty of fish to eat?'"

"'Cause the island was in the water," said Vi promptly. "Of course there
were fish."

"Well, that isn't the answer," Laddie said slowly.

"Why isn't it?"

"Because--because the answer is something about Friday. You fry fish,
you know--And anyway, Crusoe's man was named _Friday_."

"Pooh!" scoffed Vi. "