Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-08-28
BUBBY'~ RAILROAD TRIP.

Bobby was little tot in dresses, with
long, ''dauburn'' curls, as he called them,
hanging down on his shoulders. He
wouldn't be four years old till October;
and yet he had been off on the cars that
spring all day alone by himself, and
without saying word to anybody 1t
all happened because papa had just got
him a velocipede, painted black, with
red trimmings, and having a cushioned
seat and a silver-tipped steering handle.
Mamma had always said there were two
things which Bobby must not do until
he was large enough to wear trousers,
and one was to eat mince pie, and the
other to ride velocipede. But every
boy on the street had velocipede that
spring, and there was no peace until
Bobby had one, too. Yet mamma never
once let him take it out Of the yard
till he had promised not to go out of
sight of the house, and not to race with
other boys.
Bobby's father was an engineer on the
railroad, and he was gone from home all
day. On the morning when this story
began to happen, he went away early,
leaving mamma with oceans of work on
her hands, that is, the weeks ironing
had to be finished up, and frosted cake
made for a little party she was to have
that evening; so as soon as Bobby had
finished his breakfast, she put on his little
gray cloak with the cap to match, which
had black tassel in the center, and his
red silk handkerchief, and mittens of the
same color, and sent him out to play with
the velocipede; then she made the cake
while the irons were getting hot, going
to the door every little while to see if
Bobby was all right.
For time Bobby remembered all that
he had promised mamma, and kept near
the house and did not race; but after all
the other children had come out on the
walk with their velocipedes, and grand
open to- all race around the square was
started, he forgot himself, and followed
the rest just as fast as his little legs could
make the wheels 60. And what was
stranger, mamma forgot him, because at
that very moment she made the unhappy
discovery that while her irons were hot,
her party cake was burning up By the
time that Bobby had turned the first cor
out of sight He was tired and would
have gone home, and this story would
never have been written; but it so hap
pened that he looked down the street a
long way to where the railroad track
crossed the road, in front of the big
depot, and saw steam engine; and then
he thought to himself, cpl 60 and see
papa" for he had an idea that all en-
gines went to the same place, and that
any one of them would take him straight
to papa; it would be fine fun to ride in
the cab, on the engineers seat, just as
he rode one day when papa's engine was
going from the engine house to the
depot. So the velocipede flew down the
street for the next few minutes, in way
that made everyone stare.
But after while it made a sudden
stop, for Bobby spied string of tobacco
pipes hanging IN the window of cigar
store, and he wanted one, because he
remembered that papa always had pipe
in his mouth when he started for the
depot. So he left the velocipede leaning
against the window, and went in and
bought long clay pipe with yellow
mouth piece. The man asked him for a
penny, and he paid him promptly from
the bit of purse that he always carried in
the side pocket of his cloak. And when
he had put that pipe in his mouth, he
felt so grand that he marched off for the
depot, never once thinking of his veloci-
pede.
When he reached the depot, the engine
was hitched to long train of cars, and
the engineer stood on the ground oiling
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oil can. The steam was shooting out Of
the steam pipe, and the fireman sat in the
cab all ready to ring the bell for starting
the train. Bobby pulled the sleeve of
the engineers jacket and said, pointing
to the cab, "Please put me up there; l
want to go and see my papa" 81
couldn't do that, my little man." and
then he climbed up to his seat. This was
a great disappointment to Bobby, and l
dare say he would have cried right out
if he hadn't seen man with pipe in his
mouth, just like his own, going into the
third car from the engine. So he thought
that that must be the place for him. Just
how he contrived to pull himself up the
steps nobody knows, for nobody saw him,
but when the train moved out the depot
he was curled up on the front seat of the
smoking car, with the pipe still between
his teeth
The very next minute, his mamma was
hurrying down Main Street, looking very
hot and exceedingly frightened, asking
every one she met, "Have you seen my
boy on his velocipede?''
The burning of that party had so
distracted the poor woman that she had
no thought of Bobby for as much as ten
minutes after it was out of the oven, and
then none of the children, who had fin
ished their race around the square by
this time, had the slightest idea what
had become of him. Neither did anybody
else know, although policeman told
her that there was an idle velocipede
down by Mr.. Carter's cigar store. But
all that Mr.. Carter could tell her was that
he had sold Bobby pipe, to be used for
blowing soap bubbles, he supposed.
Mamma was very pale by this time, and
her mind was full of all the terrible
things that might possibly happen to
Bobby, but she went straight on through
the crowded streets of the city, till she
came to the police Office at the City Hall
The Chief of Police was very kind to her,
and he wrote down all she could tell him
about how Bobby looked, and what he
wore. He said that the City Hall bell
should be rung to show that child was
lost, that all the policemen should
look for Bobby all over the city, and that
if he wasn't found within two hours, the
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