Sunny Boy in the Big City Part 16

SUNNY BOY GETS LOST

"Do you remember when you were counting up the kinds of cars you had ridden on?" asked Daddy, as he and Sunny Boy stood on the walk waiting for Mother, who had gone into a drugstore to buy some postage stamps.

Sunny Boy nodded.

"Well, the subway is one kind you haven't been on," said Daddy.

Sunny Boy was surprised.

"But it isn't cars, Daddy," he argued. "I think it is a boat."

Mr. Horton laughed.

"The subway isn't what you ride on," he tried to explain. "It's what you ride _in_. The trains go through the subway, Sunny."

Mrs. Horton came out with her postage stamps just then, and the three walked till they came to one of the funny little houses Sunny Boy had seen at many street corners. Mr. Horton led the way straight down the steps.

"Why, we're going down cellar!" exclaimed the astonished little boy, who followed him. "Daddy, do the trains run in the cellar?"

It was clear that they did, for even before they reached the last step the rumble and roar of a coming train was heard. It was light and bright in the subway station, and Sunny Boy thought that it did not seem like a cellar at all.

He stood as close to the edge of the platform as his father would let him and peered up the track. It was dark, like a tunnel, and colored lights winked at him from the walls.

"Will the next be our train?" he asked.

"We can take any that comes," answered Daddy. "This is an express station. See the red light coming--that is a train."

A tiny red glow far in the distance grew larger and larger, and the roar and rumble of the train was heard. A long train of cars, brilliantly lighted, swept past them, such a long train that Sunny Boy thought at first that it was not going to stop. But it did.

"Where's the engine?" he asked disappointedly, as he and Mother and Daddy stepped on through a center door.

"There isn't any engine," replied his father. "Don't you remember the elevated train has no engine, either? Both kinds of trains are run by electricity. If Mother doesn't mind, we'll go up in the first car and watch from the front door."

Mrs. Horton didn't mind, even though they had to walk almost the length of the train to reach the first car. There were plenty of seats in this car, and Mrs. Horton sat down to rest while Sunny Boy and his father stood at the door and peered through the gla.s.s panel.

They could see the tracks stretching ahead of them, and as they watched the train flashed through a station without stopping.

Sunny Boy was delighted.

"Let's ride all day," he suggested. "Don't get off, Daddy. See the blue light! What's that for?"

Mr. Horton didn't know. It was some sort of signal for the engineer.

The engineer was shut away from them in a little enclosed corner s.p.a.ce where it was dark and he could see the lights ahead of him plainly.

When they stopped at a station, many people always got off, but seemingly as many crowded on.

"Where are we going, Daddy?" Sunny Boy thought to ask at one of these stops.

"A long way," Daddy a.s.sured him. "Up to Bronx Park and the Zoological Garden. I thought you'd like to see the animals."

Sunny Boy was fond of animals, but he was sure that he would never again have as much fun as he was having watching the train speed along those dark shining rails.

"You can go and sit down, if you're tired, Daddy," he told his father.

"I can stay here alone."

Mr. Horton did go back and sit down beside Mother.

"I guess maybe I will sit down a minute," said Sunny Boy, after he had stood up for many blocks. "I'm not tired, but my feet are."

Then, before his feet were rested, Daddy announced that the next station was theirs. They were out of the subway now, riding along in the open air, and he took Mother's hand.

"And now," said Mr. Horton, with a smile for Sunny as they left the train and, after a short walk, entered the park, "let's see everything!"

This they proceeded to do.

There isn't room to tell you of the wonderful animals they saw, the buffaloes, the beautiful deer, so tame that they came up to the wires to have their noses rubbed; of the lions and tigers and panthers and leopards; of strange animals that Sunny Boy had never seen even in his book of wild animals; and of the woods where they enjoyed their lunch, just as if they were on a picnic. They visited the Botanical Gardens, too, where Mother made as much fuss over the flowers as Sunny Boy had over the baby deer, and where Daddy took pictures of them both to send to Grandpa and Grandma Horton.

"We may be tired," Daddy admitted, when he looked at his watch and found it was time for them to go home, "but then look what we have for being tired!"

Sunny Boy was busy thinking of all the things he had seen, and he forgot to be disappointed because the first car was full and he couldn't get near the door to look out, as he had coming up that morning.

"We'll change at Forty-second Street," he heard Daddy say to Mother.

"I'm afraid we stayed a little too long and will be caught in the rush."

Mrs. Horton had a seat, but Sunny Boy and Daddy were standing.

"Hang on to my coat sleeve and you'll be steady enough," Daddy advised his little son.

"I think it would be better if he sat in his mother's lap, don't you?"

said Mrs. Horton, smiling.

"But I'm not slipping, Mother," he announced proudly. "Wouldn't you think I was standing without holding on to anything?"

"You manage very nicely," Mrs. Horton told him. "Isn't the next stop ours, Harry?"

It was, and Mr. Horton had to elbow a little path for them to the door, there were so many people trying to get in and out at the same time. Sunny Boy had hold of Mother's dress, and as they squeezed out of the car he lost his grasp.

"Goodness," he scolded, "I should think folks would wait a minute.

That man b.u.mped right into me and never said 'excuse me.'"

Sunny Boy looked ahead and saw Mother's blue dress and tan coat.

"I 'spect I'd better hurry," he said aloud.

He ran after the blue dress and tan coat and slipped in through a door just a second before the guard closed it.

Then Sunny Boy made a surprising discovery.

The blue dress and the tan coat were not Mother's at all! He had followed a strange woman!