the whisking chipmunk, and she dropped her flowers
and ran after her brother.

"Oh, let me catch him! Let me catch him!"

The chipmunk ran along the stone fence a little way, and then looked
back at the excited children. He did not seem much frightened. Perhaps
he had been chased by children before and knew that he was more than
their match in running.

At any rate, that chipmunk drew Laddie and Vi on to the very edge of the
woods, and then, with a flirt of its tail, it disappeared into a hole
and they could not find him.

Laddie and Vi were breathless by that time, and they had to sit down and
rest. They looked back over the field. It was a long way to the brink of
the bank from which they could see the train and the passengers.

"I--I guess we'd better go back," said Laddie.

"And mother's flowers!" exclaimed Vi. "Do you know where you dropped
them?"

"I dropped mine just where you dropped yours, I guess," returned her
brother.

"We'll go pick them up. Come on."

They were both tired when they started to trudge back up the hill. And
just as they started they heard a long blast of a whistle, and then two
short blasts.

"What do you suppose that is?" asked Vi.

"It's the engine. Oh, Vi! maybe it's going to start without us," and
Laddie began to run, tired as he was.

"Wait for me, Laddie! It can't go--you know it can't. The big rock is in
the way."

But they were both rather frightened, and they did not stop to find
their flowers. The possibility that the train might go off and leave
them filled the two children with alarm. They ran on as hard as they
could, and Vi fell down and soiled her hands and her dress.

She was beginning to cry a little when Laddie came back for her and took
her hand. He was frightened, too; but he would not show it by
crying--not then, anyway.

"Come on, Vi," he urged. "If that old train goes on with daddy and
mother and the rest, I don't know what we _shall_ do!"

CHAPTER X

WHERE ARE THE TWINS?

The wrecking crew with their big derrick and other tools had not yet
arrived in the cut where the stalled west-bound train, on which rode the
Bunker family, had stopped. But the section gang had shoveled away the
dirt and gravel from the east-bound track.

Russ and Rose and Margy and Mun Bun had found plenty to interest them in
watching the shovelers and in listening to the men passengers talking
with daddy and some of the train crew. Finally Mun Bun expressed a
desi