Part 2

Charlie and Topsy and Bingo had lots of fun playing together and, when Charlie was playing with them, Topsy and Bingo were always good; but sometimes, when Topsy and Bingo played alone together, they were as bad as bad could be and got into all kinds of mischief--especially Bingo.

Yes, Bingo could think up the _naughtiest_ things to do! He liked to dig in the flower beds and bury bits of sticks that he pretended were bones. That was lots of fun for Bingo but very bad for the flowers! And he liked to go into people’s bedrooms and hide their bedroom slippers so that they could not find them anywhere.

But most of all he liked to eat up the carpet in the dining room. Oh, my goodness! What fun Bingo did have with that carpet! He would hold one corner in his mouth and he would waggle his tail and scrabble with his paws and he would growl and growl and he would chew at that carpet till the wonder was he did not chew it all up.

Yes, Bingo thought up all these naughty things to do when he was playing by himself and he also tried to imitate the things that Topsy did.

Topsy was very fond of climbing, and he could climb beautifully. He hardly ever knocked anything down. No indeed! Topsy could jump straight on to the mantelpiece and walk among the ornaments and not knock a single one down!

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did not like Topsy to do this. They were afraid that some day he might throw something down--but he never did. Bingo thought that he would love to be able to climb like that. He looked at Topsy with admiring eyes and this made Topsy all the more anxious to show off.

Sometimes Topsy would climb up the dining room curtains all the way to the top, and that made Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie very angry, because his little sharp claws made scratches on the curtains. Then they would shake them hard so that Topsy would have to climb down. He _would not_ learn that he must not do it again.

For Topsy loved to show off. He knew that he could climb better than anybody in the house and so he wanted to do it all the time, and the more he did it the more Bingo wanted to show Topsy that he could climb as well. But of course he could not.

One reason was that Bingo could not _jump_ as high as Topsy. A little dog never _can_ jump as high as a kitten. They are not made that way. So when Bingo wanted to climb he had to scramble up with his paws and he always knocked against something or other which would come down with a crash and a bang and somebody would say, “Oh, you bad Bingo, you have broken something again!” It was very discouraging.

One day Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie had gone out. They had gone downtown to do some shopping so they had decided to leave Bingo at home, as one cannot very well take a little dog into a department store.

So Topsy and Bingo were left all alone with nobody to look after them but Jane, and she was not much good, as she was feeling very sleepy and had gone up to the attic to sleep undisturbed.

Topsy and Bingo decided that they would have a glorious time with nobody to interfere with them, no matter what mischief they might be up to.

First they went into the dining room and they had a grand time playing with the rug. This, as you know, was one of Bingo’s favorite games and he showed Topsy ex-act-ly how to play it--how you pretend that the rug is a wild animal, and how you grab the end in your mouth and kick and scrabble with your paws and growl in a low and dreadful voice. Topsy thought that this was a grand game. He liked the growling part especially. You should have heard the ferocious growls that Topsy made. Bingo felt quite frightened, although he knew it was only in fun.

When they got tired of that game, they went into the kitchen to see what interesting things they could find to do there. And, of course, Topsy began to climb--yes, he climbed up on everything in the kitchen except on the kitchen stove. He was too wise a kitten to do that. He climbed up on to the window sill and on to the table and on to the sink. Then he jumped up on to the kitchen dresser and climbed to the very top shelf, where he walked in and out among the plates, and yet he did not knock a single one down! Every now and then Topsy looked down at Bingo and tossed his head, as if to say, “Don’t you wish _you_ could do it, too?” Bingo was wild with excitement. He jumped up on his hind legs and barked, “Yap, yap, yap!” in his funny, hoarse little voice.

At last he _determined_ that he would climb up on the kitchen dresser, too. Yes, he would climb up to the very top shelf and show Topsy that he could climb, too!

There was a chair close to the kitchen dresser and Bingo first managed to climb up on that, then he scrambled up on to the dresser. He felt very proud when he looked down to the floor and saw what a height he had climbed to. Topsy was still up on the top shelf looking down at him with his head on one side.

Bingo then stood up on his hind legs and he put his paws up on the next shelf--but, oh, dear! Bingo was unlucky again! He knocked against a big, round, white tin that had FLOUR written on it in gold letters. And it toppled right over!--yes, it toppled right over and banged Bingo on the head, and a lot of white, powdery stuff fell all over him and got in his eyes. It was awful!

Poor Bingo did not want to climb any more. He jumped straight off the kitchen dresser on to the floor, and he ran out of the kitchen with his little short tail hanging down. He went into the living room and hid under the sofa--poor Bingo was feeling very unhappy and he wanted to be alone.

Soon he heard the front door open and he heard Charlie’s voice in the hall. Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie had come home.

Charlie said, “Oh, Mother, look at those funny white tracks all along the floor. What do you think they can be?”

His Mother and his Auntie looked, and they said, “How extraordinary! They look like Bingo’s footprints. I wonder what he can have been up to.”

Then Bingo himself came running out into the hall to meet Charlie. He had forgotten his troubles and he jumped up in the air and barked, “Yap, yap, yap,” he was so glad that Charlie had come home again. But when Charlie saw Bingo, he called out in amazement, “Mother, Auntie, _look_! What has happened to Bingo! He has lost his spots!”

And it was true. Bingo had lost all his spots! He had lost the black spot on his head, and the ones on his ears, and the big black spot on his back, and the little black spot on the end of his stumpy tail! Yes, Bingo was now white all over without a particle of black anywhere.

“What have you done to yourself?” said Charlie as he picked him up. Bingo tried to tell him all about it, as he wriggled and barked and tried to lick Charlie’s face. And--lo and behold! the black spots began to show again, first the one on Bingo’s head, then the ones on his ears, then the big one on his back, and last of all the little one on his tail. But now it was Charlie who was white--yes, he was white all down the front of his coat!

Then Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie followed Bingo’s little white tracks to where they came from. They wanted to discover what in the world Bingo had been doing to get himself white all over. Yes, they followed the tracks all the way to the kitchen, and there they found the tin of flour lying on the floor near the dresser--and _then_ they knew what Bingo had been doing while they were out.

Oh, how Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie did laugh at the idea of poor, fat, little Bingo trying to climb up on the kitchen dresser, and knocking the tin of flour all over himself! But they were sorry for Bingo, too, because they knew how it must have frightened him.

So Charlie’s Auntie found Bingo’s brush, and she took him out into the back yard and brushed all the rest of the flour off him--all that wasn’t on the carpet or the kitchen floor or on Charlie’s coat! And Charlie’s Mother swept up the flour in the kitchen, and swept the tracks on the living-room carpet, and she gave Charlie a whisk broom to brush off the front of his coat. And then she went to the ice box and got a little bone, and she gave it to Bingo to comfort him.

So Bingo was happy again after all his troubles--but never again did he try to climb up on high pieces of furniture, no matter how perky Topsy looked at him and tried to egg him on. No, Bingo was a wise little dog now, and when Topsy climbed up on the mantelpiece and looked down at him, tossing his head as much as to say, “Don’t you wish you could climb like me?” Bingo would jump in the air and bark, “Yap, yap!” Then he would stand up on his hind legs and beg--and that was _one_ thing that Topsy did not know how to do!

CHARLIE RIDES IN THE ENGINE OF A REAL TRAIN

One day Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie and Topsy and Bingo and Jane went to stay in the country.

It was a very interesting place where they were going to stay in the country. What do you think? It was the place where Charlie’s Daddy had lived when he was a little boy!

Yes, that is where they were going, and, as it was a Saturday, Charlie’s Daddy was going with them, too. He was not going to live with them in the country, because on weekdays he had to go to the office every day. But he said that he would come down _every_ Saturday and stay in the country till Sunday night.

So they all went to the railway station in a taxicab. Jane traveled in a cat basket and Charlie’s Auntie carried her. Topsy also traveled in a cat basket and Charlie’s Mother carried him, but Bingo had to travel in the baggage car and he had a ticket all to himself because he was a dog. Charlie thought that he ought to feel very proud.

When they got to the station they all went straight through the gate to the platform, and there the train was waiting for them. It was a great e-nor-mous train with ever so many coaches. First, Charlie and his Daddy took Bingo to the baggage car, and the baggage man fastened Bingo’s leash to the end of a trunk and promised Charlie to be good to Bingo.

Then they all got into the day car, and the train gave a loud whistle and steamed out of the station. My goodness! how fast it went! Everything just seemed to go flying past.

Soon the conductor came walking down the aisle and he took everybody’s ticket. He was a very grand-looking man; he was tall, and stout, and he had a beautiful blue uniform on. He soon came to the seat where Charlie and his Daddy were sitting, and he took the tickets. Yes, the conductor took all the tickets and he stuck Charlie’s Daddy’s ticket in his hatband, but as his Mother and his Auntie had no hatbands, he stuck _their_ tickets into the top of the seat in front of them. Then he took Charlie’s ticket, and he stuck it in Charlie’s hatband. Charlie felt very proud, and he would not take his hat off. No, he kept his hat on all the time because he wanted everybody to see that _he_ had a ticket in his hatband just like all the other men.

Then Charlie said to his Daddy, “Daddy, what _ex-act-ly_ makes the train go?”

And his Daddy said, “It’s the steam that makes the engine work, and it is the engineer and the fireman who look after the steam and the engine.” Then Charlie said, “What I want to know is _ex-act-ly_ what the fireman and the engineer do when they are making the engine go.”

But what do you think? His Daddy did not know _ex-act-ly_ what they did--he said that he had never ridden on an engine in his life, so how could he know what they did? And Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did not know either. That was very surprising.

Well, after they had been in the big train for about a whole hour, they came to a station where there were a lot of tracks. This station was called a junction, because there were so many tracks.

Some of the tracks went to the North and some to the South and some to the East and some to the West. The train that Charlie and his Daddy and his Auntie and his Mother were on was going toward the West; but now they wanted to go to the North, so they had to change trains and go on a train that was going toward the _North_.

The train was already waiting on its own track. It was a very little train, it had only two coaches!

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie and Jane and Topsy got into the train, and they took Bingo with them, because, as it was such a little unimportant train, the conductor said that Bingo could travel in the day coach instead of being tied up in the baggage car, and Bingo was very glad. But Charlie and his Daddy waited on the platform till it was time for the train to start, and they looked at all the interesting things about them.

Then a man came up. He wore overalls and a peaked cap. And--you _never_ can guess who it was? It was the _fireman_ who helped work the engine of the train they were going to take. And what _do_ you think? The fireman knew Charlie’s Daddy! Yes, the fireman came up to them, and said to his Daddy, “Hello, Bob!” Bob was his Daddy’s name that his Mother and his Auntie always called him! And his Daddy said, “Why--Hello, Bill,” and they shook hands.

Charlie was _very_ much surprised that the fireman and his Daddy knew each other, but it was not so very surprising after all. The fireman lived in the village where Charlie’s Daddy had lived when he was a little boy, and where Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie were going to live for a whole month, and his Daddy and the fireman had gone to the same school when they were little boys!

Well, the fireman then looked at Charlie, and he said, “And is this your boy?”

Then Charlie’s Daddy said, “Yes, this is Charlie, and you are the very man he wants to meet. Charlie wants to know _ex-act-ly_ what the fireman and the engineer do to make the train go--and he can’t find anybody who knows. So go ahead and tell him all about it.”

But the fireman said, “I can do better than that. Suppose you and Charlie take a ride on the engine with me; then he can see everything with his own eyes, and learn all there is to know in case he wants to be a fireman himself.”

Yes, the fireman _ac-tu-al-ly_ said those words! And Charlie’s Daddy said, “That will be fine. I’ll just go and tell Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie what has become of us, so that they won’t worry.”

And he did so. Then the fireman, and Charlie and his Daddy all got into the cab, which is back of the engine, where the engineer and the fireman sit.

The engineer was already sitting in his place, which is on the right of the cab. He was very pleased to meet Charlie and his Daddy, but he said that after the train had started he would not be able to speak a word to anybody, and nobody must speak to him. Yes, nobody must _ever_ speak to the engineer when he is driving the engine, because if anybody spoke to the engineer it might distract his attention and then the train might be wrecked!

All the time that the train is going the engineer has to sit on his seat with his hand on the throttle, which is the thing that makes the train stop in a hurry, and all the time he has to look out of the window to see what the signals say, and to see that there is nothing on the track ahead of him.

If he sees a green signal on the signal post that means that the engine can go straight ahead, but if the signal is red, then it means “Stop”--and the engineer presses on the throttle, and the train stops.

The engineer told all this to Charlie while they were waiting for the train to start. Then the engineer got the signal from the man on the platform; he blew the whistle, and the train started, and he could not say another word.

Well, the fireman’s place is on the left side of the cab, and Charlie’s Daddy sat between him and the window, and Charlie sat on his Daddy’s knee.

The fireman has to work very hard, but when he is not working he can talk if he wants to. This fireman was very kind, and, when he was not working, he explained everything to Charlie and his Daddy--but all the time he was ex-plain-ing he had to keep looking out of the window, too, in case he should see anything that the engineer did not see. There are a great many windows in the cab of an engine--it has windows all round, because it is so _very important_ that the engineer and the fireman shall see all that there is to see.

Well, I will now tell you what the fireman was doing all the time that Charlie and his Daddy were riding on the engine with him.

In front of the fireman was the steam gauge, which is a round thing like a clock, and it has a hand like a clock hand, too, and the steam makes the hand move--so that you can see how much steam is coming out of the boiler. When the steam is getting low the hand drops, and when the hand of the gauge drops to 150 the fireman knows it is time to put more coal in the fire box.

Every time that the hand of the gauge dropped to 150 the fireman got up and opened a little door in the back of the cab, which opened right into the fire box, so that you could see the fire all red and glowing, and the fireman scooped a great shovel full of coal into it. The fireman told Charlie that it was _very_ important how one shovels the coal into the fire box. It has to be shoveled very evenly, so that it is not all black with coal in one place and all red hot with embers in another place. Yes, the fireman told Charlie that it needs a lot of practice before one can shovel the coal in just _ex-act-ly_ right.

Then the fireman also had to watch the water gauge, which shows how much water there is in the boiler.

When he saw by the water gauge that the water was getting low in the boiler, then the fireman had to turn a valve, which is a sort of handle that starts a pump working, and the pump pumps water into the boiler.

Charlie very much wanted to turn the valve himself, but the fireman said, “No,” that it needed a whole lot of practice before one could pump water into the tank--as it was _very_ important just how much water to pump. If too much cold water is pumped into the boiler it might cool the water already in the boiler so that no more steam would come out--and then the train would stop!

Do you think that the fireman on an engine is a busy man? Indeed he is!

But that is not all that the fireman has to do. Oh, dear, no! The fireman has a lot more work to do.

When the train is coming to a steep place--and there were a lot of steep places on the railroad that Charlie was traveling on--the fireman has to make the fire _red hot_, so that lots and lots of steam can come out of the boiler. He makes the fire get hotter and hotter until the steam gets so strong that the “safety valve” pops off--and this shows the engineer that there is enough steam to push the train up the steep place. Yes, you can see that it would need a lot of extra steam to push a train up a steep, high hill.

The fireman also has to blow a whistle, whenever the train comes to a crossing or to the station. And when they got to the last stop--which was the village where Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie and Bingo and Topsy and Jane were going to live for a whole month--the fireman let Charlie blow the whistle himself! Yes, he did, and you should have heard what a loud whistle Charlie blew.

Well, at last they had come to the end of their journey, and Charlie certainly had learned a whole lot about engines. Yes, Charlie had learned a whole lot more than most people know. Of course he told his Mother and his Auntie about everything, so that they, too, should know all about what the fireman and the engineer do to make the train go.

And Charlie said, “Now, when I get home to the city I will be able to play with my train in _just_ the right way. I will be able to play that I am the fireman and the engineer, and I will know _ex-act-ly_ what they do, and I will practice and practice being a fireman so that I can be one when I grow up!”

BINGO AND THE ANGRY ROOSTER

I told you in the last story how Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie and his Daddy and Topsy and Bingo and Jane all went to the country together. And how Charlie rode on the engine, which he liked very much, but Topsy and Jane had to travel in baskets, which they did not like at all, and Bingo had to travel all by himself in the baggage car, and he did not like that either.

But when at last they arrived at the farm where they were going to stay for a whole month, Charlie opened the baskets and let Jane and Topsy out, and he unfastened Bingo’s leash, and they all went exploring together. _Then_ Jane and Topsy and Bingo were delighted. They liked the country _tre-men-dous-ly_, and the longer they stayed the more they liked it.

There were so many delightful things for cats and dogs to do, which they could not do in the city. Instead of long straight roads with automobiles dashing past all the time, there were fields and meadows to run around in. There were tall trees for Topsy to climb and nice muddy puddles for Bingo to roll in, and Jane could go out for long walks by herself without ever meeting anything dangerous.

Charlie always got up very early when he was in the country because he liked to see the cows milked, and Topsy and Bingo and Jane liked to see the cows milked also. Charlie always carried three little bowls down to the barn, and the farmer filled them with milk straight from the cow, so that Topsy and Bingo and Jane could have their breakfast without waiting. This interested them all three very much, because they knew that at home their milk always came out of a milk bottle which had been left at the front door by the milkman.

All the time that Charlie was in the country he was allowed to run around in the fields and meadows all by himself, and of course Topsy and Bingo followed him wherever he went. It would take a whole book by itself to tell you _all_ the delightful things that they did together.

Now, wouldn’t you think that Bingo, with all the big countryside to play in, and ever so many interesting things to do all day long, would have been able to keep out of mischief at least as long as he was in the country? But no, he could not. You see, puppies nearly always _are_ in mischief--they are made that way. So Bingo often went off by himself and thought of nice, mischievous things to do.

One of the things that Bingo liked to do more than anything else was to go and bark at the chickens. That was very naughty of him, and Charlie always stopped him when he found him doing it. But often Bingo would slip away from Charlie and dash down to the chicken house and bark, “Yap, yap, yap!” He loved to see the hens running this way and that, clucking loudly and calling all the little chickens who came running to hide themselves under their Mother’s wings. Bingo enjoyed this tremendously and never tired of the naughty game. Of course he never hurt any of the chickens or the hens. Bingo was a dear, nice, little puppy and he would never do a thing like that, but he _did_ like to watch them running around and saying, “Cluck, cluck, cluck, CLUCK!” Yes, it amused Bingo very much.

One day Charlie was busy helping the lady at the farm to make the butter. This is a very interesting thing to do. Bingo watched Charlie for a while thumping away with the dasher, but soon he got tired of watching and not doing anything himself, so he decided that he would go and play with the chickens.

He began to bark before he got there, and the hens began to cluck, cluck, cluck, and the chickens ran this way and that way and scrambled under their Mother’s wings.

Bingo was so busy with his barking that he did not notice that there was a newcomer among the hens. This was a big white rooster that the farmer had brought home from the fair the night before.