o, not now. They're getting used to him, and they know what sort of a
mischief maker he is. But he's a big shipper, an' at first they used to
get after me pretty hard when he wrote one of his kicks."

"Before I came on the run, you mean?"

"Sure! He'd been at it a long time before I got you, Jim. You see, he
sends so much stuff by freight they had to humor him--and they still do.
But now they just write him a letter apologizin' and don't bother me
about it at all. Bet I've lost as much as a week's pay, I guess, goin'
to headquarters in workin' time to explain his kicks. He's got a swell
chance of gettin' help from me!"

Then the two trainmen passed on, but not until they had promised to see
the two girls safe off the car at Pine Bridge.

"People usually get paid back when they do something mean, Zara," said
Bessie. "If Farmer Weeks hadn't treated those men badly, they would
probably have sent us back. But as soon as they heard who he was, you
saw how they acted."

"That's right, Bessie. I bet he'd be madder than ever if he knew that.
Someone ought to tell him."

"He'd only try to make more trouble for them, and perhaps he could, too.
No, I don't want to bother about him any more, Zara. I just want to
forget all about him. I wonder how long we'll have to wait at Pine
Bridge."

"Miss Eleanor didn't say what she was going to do, did she?"

"No; she just said that she'd get there, and that she had decided to
change all her plans on our account."

"We're making an awful lot of trouble for her, Bessie."

"I know we are, and we've got to show her that we're grateful and do
anything we can to help her, if she ever needs our help. I thought when
we started from Hedgeville after the fire that we would be able to get
along together somehow, Zara, but I see now how foolish that was."

"I believe you'd have managed somehow, Bessie. You can do 'most
anything, I believe."

"I'm afraid you'll find out that I can't before we're done, Zara. We
didn't have any money, or any plans, or anything. It certainly was lucky
for us that we went to that lake where the Camp Fire Girls were. If it
hadn't been for them we'd be back in Hedgeville now, and much worse off
than if we hadn't tried to get away."

"There's the whistle, Bessie. I guess that means we're getting near Pine
Bridge."

"Well, here you are! Going to meet your friends here?" said the
conductor.

"Yes; thank you," said Bessie. "We're ever so much obliged, and we'll