Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels Part 28

When we went out in the morning the surprise was mutual. Gee, it was _especially_ mutual. There was a crowd outside the car, staring up at it. It must have looked funny standing there with BREWSTER'S CENTRE sprawled all over it. There were all kinds of people in that crowd. One of them was a woman who was a fortune teller. She had on a dress with all spangles on it. Her name was Princess Mysteria. I wanted to ask her when the train would come for us and if we'd have any more adventures, but Westy wouldn't let me, because it cost twenty-five cents. He said he'd rather spend the twenty-five cents for licorice jaw-breakers and then we'd _know_ what was happening to us. Gee whiz, you don't need any fortune teller after eating licorice jaw-breakers.

All around in that place men were opening booths and putting up tents and getting counters ready, so they could sell peanuts and lemonade and ice-cream cones and canes and fancy gla.s.s jars and other things to eat and drink--not canes and gla.s.s jars. There was a merry-go-round, too, and it had an organ that played _We're on our way_.

"Jiminies," Westy said; "I don't know where anyone would expect to get to, riding on a merry-go-round."

Pretty soon a man came up to us and asked us how we got there. I guess he was one of the head men of the Carnival.

I said, "Isn't this Flimdunk Siding? We're supposed to stay here until a train picks us up."

He said, "Yes, but this car has no business inside the fence; this is the old ice-house freight siding. They should have left you standing out near the main line."

I said, "Yes, but this car has something to say about it, too, and it wouldn't stop, so here we are. Don't blame us, blame the car. That's the way it is with railroads, they don't care about anybody's rights."

"That ain't the main entrance you came through," he said; "that gate was open so stuff could be brought in on the freight cars."

"It's all the same to us," I told him; "we're here, because we're here."

He said, "Well, you'll have to pay your admission or be put out."

Connie said, "How are you going to put this car out? If you once get it started it may roll all the way back onto the main track and we'll die a horrible death."

"Yes, and then you'll be sorry," Pee-wee said.

The man said, "Well, this car hasn't got any right on the grounds, that's all."

I said, "Mister, I don't know what we can do, unless we get a couple of those elephants from the merry-go-round to drag it away."

Pretty soon two other men came along and they all stood there talking about what they had better do, and we sat on the steps of the platform, listening to them.

"You seem to be live wires, leastways," one of them said.

"Sure," I told him; "we were struck by lightning when we were kids."

Then they whispered together for about a minute and after that the man who seemed to be a head man said, "Well, as long as the car's here, we'll let it stay here and you youngsters can scamper about and enjoy yourselves. 'Long as the car's standing idle, we'll use it for a concession booth."

They went away talking about it and we started asking each other what they meant, because we were beginning to get a little scared, sort of.

We didn't want to give up our car. Pretty soon Mr. Pedro came along and we told him all about it.

He said he was on our side. This is just what he said; he said, "These people are a crew of bandits. Do you know how much I'm paying for that little shanty? Fifty dollars for the three days. Do you know how much the Princess is handing over for the s.p.a.ce where she has her little tent? Seventy dollars, cold cash. She says if she'd known it would be anything like that, she'd never have come."

Westy said, "I should think she would have known it, on account of being a fortune teller."

"What they're going to do," he said, "is to turn this car over to that Punch and Judy man and he'll run an indoor show and whack up with them on a fifty per cent basis. Look at _me_? I have to give an outside show and pa.s.s the hat. You're in a robbers' den here, boys; they're all profiteers. You take a tip from me and stand on your rights."

"Sure," I said, "and we'll stand on our car platform, too."

He said, "These fellows know your couplings are in bad shape and will have to be fixed before you're taken away. They know you'll be here all day at the shortest. Why, they're getting twenty cents for a gla.s.s of milk down yonder--it's awful. These people will corner the United States currency before the day's over."

Westy said, "But anyway, this car has no right here, we have to admit that."

Mr. Pedro said, "Well, that's a fine legal question and I don't know what the Supreme Court would say about it. As you said, you're here, because you're here. I think that's a pretty strong argument."

"I invented it," Pee-wee shouted.

Mr. Pedro said, "The car has no right here, but you have a right in the car; you're part of the car, see? They can put the car off the grounds (if they know how), but they can't put you out of the car. You can stay in your car and do anything you please in your car, and n.o.body can stop you. If they start the car they'll have to take the consequences."

"That's what you call technology," Pee-wee shouted; "it's a teckinality.[C] What do you say we give a movie show?"

"Me for some breakfast," I said.

We wrote a couple of notices on pages out of my field book and fixed them on the doors of the car. They said:

"This car is the property of the First Bridgeboro, N. J., Troop B. S. A.

"Trespa.s.sing forbidden."

Mr. Pedro came over and told us that if anybody went in that car while we were gone, he'd call up a lawyer in Flimdunk.

As long as we didn't have much left to eat we went over to a shack and got some coffee and doughnuts. _Good night!_ The coffee was twenty cents a cup, and the doughnuts were ten cents each. Then we had a ride on the merry-go-round, and after that we had some ice-cream cones. Those cones were fifteen cents each and even the ice cream didn't go down into the cone, like in Bennett's at home.

Westy said, "The biggest part of those doughnuts were the holes in them."

"Sure," I told him; "the price of holes has gone up; it's simply terrible the high price of emptiness."

Wig said, "I was always crazy to see a robbers' cave and now I see one."

We went out through the main entrance, because we wanted to go to Flimdunk and send telegrams to our homes, so our mothers and fathers wouldn't worry.

"It's only a couple of miles," Westy said.

"There's one funny thing about riding on a merry-go-round," Connie started in; "no matter how long a ride you take, you never have to come back."

"That's because you're already back," I told him.

He said, "Yes, but you _go_, don't you?"

"Sure you do," Pee-wee said.

"Then how do you get back without coming back?" Connie shot at him.

"That's technology," I said.

"You make me tired," Pee-wee screamed; "suppose all the time you're going you're coming back, too? Let's see you answer that."

"Oh, that's different," Wig said.

"Just the same as when our young hero flies up in the air," I told them.