CHAPTER VIII

A LONG RIDE

Flossie and Freddie, scurrying through the gates of the elevated car just as the guard was about to close them, saw inside two rows of seats on either side, there being very few passengers in that coach.  Thinking their father and mother, with Bert and Nan, were right behind them, the two little twins felt no fear, but rushed in, each one anxious to get a seat.

“I’m going to sit by a window!” cried Freddie.

“So’m I!” added Flossie, and both were soon kneeling on the rattan seats, with their noses fairly flattened against the glass of the window.  The few passengers in the train smiled, for they knew the children must be from somewhere outside of New York, as the little folk of that city are not so eager to see the sights amid which they live.

It was not until the train had started, and had gone several blocks, that Flossie and Freddie thought of their father and mother.  They were greatly interested in looking out of the windows, and watching the train rush past at the level of the upper stories of the houses and stores along the streets.  It did seem so queer to them to be riding in a train high up in the air, instead of on the ground.

“It’s lots better than a tunnel, and I used to think they were lots of fun!” said Flossie, fairly bubbling over with joy.

“It’s great!” cried Freddie, and he flattened his nose out more than ever against the glass, trying to look around a corner.  For he had seen in one window of a house a boy dropping from the window of his home a basket on a string, and Freddie wanted to see why he was doing this.

It is no unusual sight in New York, to see children, not much larger than the small Bobbsey twins, traveling about alone, so the other passengers and the trainmen, after the first few smiles, paid no attention to Flossie and Freddie.  But the two themselves, after their first wonder at the sights they saw, began to think of their father and mother, as well as of Bert and Nan.

“Where are they?” asked Flossie, after a bit, as she turned around and sat down in her seat.

“Didn’t they—­didn’t they come in after us?” asked Freddie, his chubby face taking on a worried look.

“I—­I didn’t see them,” returned Flossie.  “Maybe they’re in another car.  Let’s go to look!”

To say a thing was generally to do it, with the smaller Bobbsey twins, at least, and no sooner did Flossie say this than Freddie was ready to go with her on a hunt for the others.  The children slipped from their seats and started for the door while the train was moving swiftly, but a guard, who is a sort of brake-man, stopped them.

“Where are you youngsters going?” he asked good-naturedly.

“We want our father and mother,” explained Freddie.  “They must be in another car.  We hurried on ahead.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened,” said the guard, with a laugh.  “But I guess you’re a little too small to go navigating around from car to car when the train’s moving.  What’s your father’s name?  I’ll have him called out for in the other cars.”