CHAPTER X
BEAUTIFUL SNOW
The girls had heard the boys who attended Salsette Academy mention thatmartinet, Major Pater. Although his infirmity--or injury--precluded hishaving anything to do with the drilling of the pupils of the academy, inthe schoolroom he was the most stern of all the instructors at Salsette.
"Oh, poor Tommy!" gasped Betty, wringing her hands.
"Served him right," declared Louise. "He should not have played thattrick. A lame man, too!"
"Oh, Louise!" exclaimed her sister Bobby, "Tommy didn't know it was anartificial limb he was stumbling over."
"And I'm sure I didn't know it was his old peg-leg I tripped on twice,"declared Teddy Tucker in high dudgeon. "What did he want to go to sleepfor, spraddled all over the aisle?"
He said this in a very low voice, however; and be kept well behind Bob andthe girls. As for Timothy Derby and Libbie Littell they actually neverheard a word of all this! They sat side by side in one of the sections andread together Spenser's _Faerie Queene_--understanding, it must beconfessed, but an infinitesimal part of that poem.
The other passengers near Major Pater, without any doubt, were vastlyamused by his condition. The melting snow cascaded off his head andshoulders, and not a little of it went down his neck. Such a militarylooking and grim-faced man, standing so stiff and upright, seemed all themore ridiculous under these conditions.
"H-r-r-rrp!" barked Major Pater, glaring at Tommy Tucker as though hiseyes would burn holes right through that boy's jacket.
Tommy sprang to attention. He was in citizen's dress, as was the major;but Tommy was sure the martinet knew him.
"What do you mean, young man, by pouring a bucket of slush over my headand shoulders?" demanded the angry Major.
"Please, sir, if you'll let me wipe it off----"
Tommy had produced his own handkerchief and made a feeble attempt toattack the melting snow on the Major's shoulders.
"H-r-r-rrp!" barked the Major again, and Tommy translated it as meaning"as you were" and came once more to attention in the middle of the aisle.
One could not really help the angry gentleman, if one was kept standing inthat ridiculous position. And the passengers near by were more amused thanbefore by the attitude and appearance of the two engaged in thecontroversy.
"Are you aware of what you have done?" demanded Major Pater, at last"Humph! Tucker of the Fourth, isn't it?"
"Ye--ye--yes, sir," gasped Tommy. Then: "One of the Tuckers, sir."
"Oh! Ah! Can there be two such awkward Tuckers?" demanded Major Paten"Humph! Is this your father, Tucker?"
For by this time Uncle Dick saw what was going on and he approached,smiling it must be confessed, but with a towel secured from the men'slavatory.
"I am acting in the capacity of guardian for the present, sir," said Mr.Gordon frankly. "This is a ridiculous thing; but I do not think the boyquite intended all that happened."
At once he began flicking away the melted snow, and then rubbed MajorPater's bald head dry. All the time he continued to talk to the militaryacademy instructor:
"I grant you that it looks very awkward on Tucker's part. But, you see,Mr.--er--?"
"Ma--Major Pater!" stammered Tommy Tucker.
"Quite so. Major, of course. Major Pater, you will realize that the boy incoming along the aisle--Er, by the way, Tommy, what were you coming for?"
"I was coming to you, Mr. Gordon, to show you how fast the snow wasgathering. I--I scraped that ball of it off the step. The porter openedthe door for me just a moment. I say, Mr. Gordon, it's a fierce storm!"
Tommy came through this explanation pretty well. Uncle Dick'sunderstanding smile helped him a good bit.
"Quite so," said Mr. Gordon, and looking at Major Pater again. "Of course,I would never have known it was snowing if you had not undertaken to showme. But you see, Major Pater, your foot was sticking out into the aisle. Isaw it. You have the misfortune to----"
"Artificial leg, sir," growled Major Pater.
"Quite so. Well, accidents will happen, you know. There! You are quite dryagain. I don't think you will get much sleep here until the porter makesup the berths. Suppose we go into the smoking compartment and soothe ourminds, Major?"
"Ah--Humph! Thank you, Mr.--er----?"
"Mr. Gordon," explained Tommy Tucker still standing as though he hadswallowed a very stiff poker indeed.
"Ah! Glad to meet you, Mr. Gordon." They shook hands. Then Major Patershot another command at Tommy: "H-r-r-rrp!" (or so it sounded) and the boywith vast relief dropped his stiff military pose.
The rest of the "live wire octette"--even Timothy and Libbie--were highlydelighted by the outcome of Tommy's joke. For, if there is fun in such apractical joke as Tommy had tried to carry through, they thought there wasdouble fun in seeing the biter bitten!
"Now will you be good?" crowed his brother, Ted. "See what you get forbeing so fresh! Tumbling over his game leg and pitching a wilted snowballat the Major's head. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
"Oh, hush!" grumbled Tommy. "You needn't say anything. He doesn't knowwhich of the Tucker twins it was crowned him with that snowball, and youare just as much in his bad books as I am. Remember that."
"Listen to him!" cried Ted, at once feeling abused. "And Major Pater isnear-sighted, too, although he scorns to wear glasses. You've got me intoa mess, too, Tommy Tucker."
"There! There!" said Betty Gordon, soothingly. "Never mind. Uncle Dickwill smooth him down. But I do think, boys, that you need not have gotinto trouble at all."
"Huh! that's our natural state," observed Teddy. "Boys out of trouble arelike fish out of water. So my dad says. And he ought to know," he grinned."He has twins."
Tommy considered, however, that he had got out of a bad box pretty easily.
"Your Uncle Dick is fine, Betty," he observed. "Think of his getting onthe blind side of Major Pater so easy. But cracky! how that snow didsquash all over him," and he ended with a wicked giggle.
"One of your instructors, too!" exclaimed Louise. "For shame!"
"My!" chuckled Bobby, "what we'd like to do to Miss Prettyman atShadyside!"
"I am afraid Miss Prettyman is no more beloved than Major Pater is."
"Never mind, you girls!" interrupted Tommy, with renewed interest in thestorm and trying to peer through the window. "It's a regular blizzard.When the porter opened the door of the vestibule for me to get that snow,I thought he wouldn't get it shut again."
"Suppose we get stalled?" questioned Louise, inclined to be the mostthoughtful of the party.
"Well, suppose we do?" returned Bob. "I tell you we are all right forfood, for the dining car----"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Tommy put in. "The porter let me into asecret. The diner was dropped about thirty miles back. Broken flange ofone wheel and no time, of course, to put on a new wheel."
"Goodness!" exclaimed Betty. "I begin to feel hungry already."
"Of course, we'll pick up another diner?" asked Libbie, though ratherdoubtfully.
"We'll hope so!" Bobby cried.
"If we get through to Tonawanda, yes," said Tommy Tucker. "That's what theporter told me. But we don't get there, if we are on schedule, until eighto'clock."
"There! I knew I was perishing of hunger," exclaimed Betty. "It's halfpast four already," she added, looking at her wrist watch.
"Three and a half hours to dinner time?" wailed Bobby. "Oh!That--is--tough!"
"That is, if we make the regular time," Bob said thoughtfully. "And rightnow, let me tell you, this train is just about crawling, and that's all.Humph! The soup sure will get cold in that dining car at Tonawanda, if itwaits there to be attached to our train."
"Oh! Oh!" cried Bobby. "Don't let's think of it. I had no idea that snowcould be so troublesome."
"Beautiful snow!" murmured Betty. "Say, Libbie. Recite that for us, willyou? You know: the poetry about 'Beautiful Snow.' You or Timothy shouldremember it."
"Pah!" exclaimed Bobby, grumblingly. "I'll give you
the proper version:
"Beautiful snow! If it chokes up this train, It certainly will give me a pain!"
"Goodness me, Bobby!" retorted her cousin, Libbie, "your versifyingcertainly gives me a pain."