And, just as Margy picked up the dog in her arms, a woman thrust her head out of one of the windows of the moving train and screamed.

CHAPTER VII

DIGGING FOR GOLD

The dog began to bark, the engine of the train whistled, the woman with her head out of the car window kept on screaming, and the conductor, standing out on the platform, shouted something, though no one could tell what it was.

“It sounded,” said Daddy Bunker, afterward, “like that Mother Goose story, where the fire begins to burn the stick, the stick begins to beat the dog, the dog begins to chase the pig and the old lady got home before midnight.”

“What is the matter?” asked Cousin Tom, who had stopped greeting the six little Bunkers to look at Margy and the dog, and listen to the screaming of the woman on the train.

No one seemed to know, but, suddenly, the engine whistled loudly once, and then the train came to a stop.  Out of the car rushed the woman, down the steps and toward Margy.

“My dog!” she cried.  “Oh, my pet dog!  I thought he was killed!”

“No’m, I picked him up,” explained Margy, as the woman took her pet animal.  “I saw him, and he came to me, ’cause he liked me.  I almost got a little kitten, but it went under a stand and when I pulled it out Mother wouldn’t let me keep it.  Now I can’t have the doggie, either,” and Margy acted as if she were going to cry.

“I’m sorry, little girl,” said the woman, “but I couldn’t give up my pet Carlo.  He is all I have!” and she cuddled the dog in her arms as she would a baby.

“Did you stop my train, lady?” asked the conductor, and he seemed rather angry.

“Yes,” was the answer.  “My Carlo ran off, just as it started, and I saw the little girl pick him up.  Then I pulled the whistle-cord, and stopped the train.  I just had to jump off and get my Carlo!”

“Well, now that you have him, please get back on again,” said the conductor.  “We are late now, and must hurry.”

“I’m sorry I can’t leave Carlo with you, for I’m sure you would love him,” said the woman to Margy.  “But I could not get along without him.”

Margy did not have time to answer, as the woman had to hurry back to the train.  The conductor was waiting, watch in hand, for the train had stopped after it had started away from the station, and would be a few minutes late.  And on a railroad a few minutes mean a great deal.

“Oh, dear!” sighed Margy.  “I had a little kittie and then I didn’t have it.  Then I had a little dog and now I haven’t that, either!  Oh, dear!”

“Never mind,” said Cousin Tom, as he patted the little girl on the head.  “You can come down to the bungalow and play in the sand, and maybe you can find a starfish or something like that.”

“Oh, are there fish down in your ocean?” asked Russ.

“Lots of ’em, if you can catch ’em,” said Cousin Tom, laughing.