"Do you see that cord, Sue?" asked Bunny.

"Yes," answered the little girl. "What's it for?"

"That's what holds the cars together," Bunny said. "The cars are tied to the engine with that cord."

Of course this was not so, for it takes strong iron chains and bars to hold the railroad cars one to another, and to the engine. But Bunny thought the cord, that blew a whistle in the engine, kept the train from coming apart.

"Is that what it's for?" asked Sue. "It isn't a very big string for to hold a train."

"Oh, it's very strong," Bunny said. "n.o.body could break it."

"I--I guess daddy could break it," Sue suggested.

"No he couldn't!"

"Yes he could! Daddy's awful strong!"

"He couldn't break that cord!" declared Bunny. "n.o.body could break it.

If I could pull it down here, you could pull on it and see how strong it is. No one can break it."

He reached up toward the whistle cord, but he was too short to get hold of it.

"I know how you can get it," said Sue.

"How can I get it?" Bunny asked.

"Hook it down with mother's parasol," answered Sue.

"Oh, so I can!" cried Bunny.

He went back to the seat where his mother sat. Mrs. Brown had fallen asleep, and Bunny got her parasol without awakening her.

The little fellow raised the umbrella, and hooked the crook in the end of it over the whistle cord. He pulled down hard, and then--well, I guess I'll tell you in the next chapter what happened.

CHAPTER VIII

AUNT LU'S SURPRISE

When Bunny Brown pulled down on the whistle cord in the railroad car, a very strange thing happened. All at once there was a loud squeaking, grinding sound. The car shivered and shook and began to go slowly. It stopped so suddenly that Bunny slid out of the smooth plush seat down to the floor. So did his sister Sue.

Some of the other pa.s.sengers had hard work to keep from sliding from their seats, and many of them jumped up and began calling:

"What's the matter?"

"What has happened?"

"Is there an accident?"

For when a train stops suddenly, you know, if it is going along fast, it almost always means that something has happened, or that there is a cow, or something else, on the track, and that the engineer wants to stop, quickly, so as not to hit it. And that's what the other pa.s.sengers thought now.

Mrs. Brown was suddenly awakened from her sleep. She, too, had almost slid from her seat when the car stopped so suddenly. For the moment Bunny pulled down on the cord, it blew a whistle in the cab, or little house of the engine, where the engineer sits. And when the engineer heard that whistle he knew it meant for him to stop as soon as he could.

He could look down the track, and see that there was nothing on the rails that he could hit, but, hearing the whistle, he thought the conductor, or one of the brakemen, must have pulled the cord. Perhaps the engineer thought some one had fallen off the train, as people sometimes fall off boats, and the engineer wanted to stop quickly so the pa.s.senger could be picked up. At any rate, he stopped very suddenly, and that was what made all the trouble. Or, rather, Bunny Brown made all the trouble, though he did not mean to.

"Why, Bunny!" cried his mother, as she straightened up in her seat.

"Where are you? Where is Sue? What has happened?"

For, you know, Bunny and Sue had slid down to the floor of the car when the train came to such a sudden stop.

"Where are you, children?" called Mrs. Brown, anxiously.

"I--I'm here, Mother!" answered Sue. "Bunny pushed me off my seat!"

"Oh-o-o-o, Sue Brown! I did not!" cried the little fellow, getting up with the parasol still in his hand. "I did not!"

"Well, you made the train stop, and that knocked me out of my seat, and my doll was knocked down too, so there!" answered Sue, and she seemed ready to cry.

"Bunny, what happened? What did you do?" asked his mother. "What are you doing with my parasol?" she asked.

"I--I just reached up to pull down that rope with the crooked handle end," Bunny answered, pointing to the whistle cord. "I wanted to show Sue how strong it was, so I pulled on it."

"Oh ho!" exclaimed a fat man, a few seats ahead of Bunny. "So that's what made the train stop; eh? I thought someone must have pulled the engineer's whistle cord to make him stop, but I didn't think it was a little boy like you."

"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed his mother, when she saw what had happened. "You shouldn't have done that. You musn't stop the train that way."

"I--I didn't want to stop the train, Mother!" the little boy answered.

"I just wanted to show Sue about the cord. I fell out of my seat, too,"

he added.

"Yes, nearly all of us did," said the fat man with a laugh. "Well if you didn't mean to do it Bunny, we'll forgive you I suppose," and he laughed in a jolly way.

Into the car came hurrying the conductor, with the gold bands on his cap, and the brakeman. They looked all around, and then straight at Bunny who still held his mother's parasol.

"Who pulled the whistle cord?" asked the conductor. Years ago there used to be a bell cord in the train, and a bell rang in the engineer's cab when the cord was pulled. But now an air whistle blows. "Who pulled the cord?" asked the conductor.

Now Bunny Brown was a brave little chap, even when he knew he had done wrong. So he spoke up and said:

"I--I pulled it, Mr. Conductor. I pulled the cord."

"You did eh?" and the conductor smiled a little now. Bunny looked so funny and so cute standing there, with the parasol, and Sue looked so pretty, standing near him, holding her doll upside down, that no one could help at least smiling. Some of the pa.s.sengers were laughing.

"And so you stopped my train; did you?" the conductor asked.

"I--I guess so," Bunny answered. "I was pulling down on the rope, to show my sister how strong it was."