tossed out of the windows when the
train stopped so suddenly, the way it did," said a little old woman.

"It's a mercy, too," smiled another woman who had previously made
friends with Jan and Teddy, "that the Curlytops did not come hurtling
down out of those upper berths."

Mr. Martin, after making sure his family was all right, partly dressed
and went out with some of the other men. The train had come to a
standstill, and Jan and Ted, looking out of the windows of their berths,
could see men moving about in the darkness outside with flaring torches.

"Maybe it's robbers," said Teddy in a whisper.

"Robbers don't stop trains," objected Janet.

"Yes they do!" declared her brother positively. "Train robbers do. Don't
they, Mother?"

"Oh, don't talk about such things now, Teddy boy. Be thankful you are
all right and hope that no one is hurt in the collision."

"That's what I say!" exclaimed the fat man. "So it's a collision, is it?
I dreamed we were in a storm and that I was blown out of bed."

"Well, you fell out, which is much the same thing," said the thin man.
"Our car doesn't seem to be hurt, anyhow."

Ted and Janet came out into the aisle in their pajamas. They looked all
about them but, aside from seeing a number of men and women who were
greatly excited, nothing else appeared to be the matter. Then in came
their father with some of the other men.

"It isn't a bad collision," said Daddy Martin. "Our engine hit a freight
car that was on a side track, but too close to our rails to be passed
safely. It jarred up our engine and the front cars quite a bit, and our
engine is off the track, but no one is hurt."

"That's good!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin. "I mean that no one is hurt."

"How are they going to get the engine back on the track?" Teddy wanted
to know. "Can't I go out and watch 'em?"

"I want to go, too!" exclaimed Janet.

"Indeed you can't--in the dark!" exclaimed her father. "Besides, the
railroad men don't want you in the way. They asked us all to go to our
coaches and wait. They'll soon have the engine back on the rails they
said."

Everyone was awake now, and several children in the car, like Trouble,
were hungry. The porter who had been hurrying to and fro said he could
get the children some hot milk from the dining-car, and this he did.

Some of the grown folks wanted coffee and sandwiches, and these having
been brought in, there was quite a merry picnic in the coach, even if
the train had