There was a dreadful noise and bustle at the station.  Whistles were blowing and people were rushing up and down the platform.  Some men were tumbling baggage so fast into the car where I was, that I was afraid some of it would fall on me.

For a few minutes Miss Laura stood by the door and looked in, but soon the men had piled up so many boxes and trunks that she could not see me.  Then she went away.  Mr. Morris asked one of the men to see that I did not get hurt, and I heard some money rattle.  Then he went away too.

It was the beginning of June and the weather had suddenly become very hot.  We had a long, cold spring, and not being used to the heat, it seemed very hard to bear.

Before the train started, the doors of the baggage car were closed, and it became quite dark inside.  The darkness, and the heat, and the close smell, and the noise, as we went rushing along, made me feel sick and frightened.

I did not dare to lie down, but sat up trembling and wishing that we might soon come to Riverdale Station.  But we did not get there for some time, and I was to have a great fright.

I was thinking of all the stories that I knew of animals traveling.  In February, the Drurys’ Newfoundland watch-dog, Pluto, had arrived from New York, and he told Jim and me that he had a miserable journey.

A gentleman friend of Mr. Drury’s had brought him from New York.  He saw him chained up in his car, and he went into his Pullman, first tipping the baggage-master handsomely to look after him.  Pluto said that the baggage-master had a very red nose, and he was always getting drinks for himself when they stopped at a station, but he never once gave him a drink or anything to eat, from the time they left New York till they got to Fairport.  When the train stopped there, and Pluto’s chain was unfastened, he sprang out on the platform and nearly knocked Mr. Drury down.  He saw some snow that had sifted through the station roof and he was so thirsty that he began to lick it up.  When the snow was all gone, he jumped up and licked the frost on the windows.

Mr. Drury’s friend was so angry.  He found the baggage-master, and said to him:  “What did you mean, by coming into my car every few hours, to tell me that the dog was fed, and watered, and comfortable?  I shall report you.”

He went into the office at the station, and complained of the man, and was told that he was a drinking man, and was going to be dismissed.

I was not afraid of suffering like Pluto, because it was only going to take us a few hours to get to Riverdale.  I found that we always went slowly before we came in to a station, and one time when we began to slacken speed I thought that surely we must be at our journey’s end.  However, it was not Riverdale.  The car gave a kind of jump, then there was a crashing sound ahead, and we stopped.

I heard men shouting and running up and down, and I wondered what had happened.  It was all dark and still in the car, and nobody came in, but the noise kept up outside, and I knew something had gone wrong with the train.  Perhaps Miss Laura had got hurt.  Something must have happened to her or she would come to me.