“Oh, I know where I am now!” she suddenly thought. “I’m on a railroad train! Just as when Arthur and Mabel brought me from the country! Mrs. Thompson has brought me to the railroad car in the basket, and that’s what makes the rumbling sound. It’s the car wheels. Now I can go to sleep in peace, and when I awaken I’ll be in the nice country.”
How long she slept Blackie did not know, but when she did wake up she found herself being lifted up in the basket again.
“I guess we must be in the country,” she thought. “Now I shall have some nice milk, and perhaps I may see my brothers and sisters.”
Blackie felt herself being carried out in the air, for she could feel the gentle Summer breeze blowing on her through the cracks in the basket. Then she heard a lot of strange noises which frightened her. There were shouts and yells, the puffing of engines, the ringing of bells and the blowing of whistles.
“Oh, dear! What can this be?” thought Blackie. “I guess it must be the railroad station where the ‘choo-choo’ cars stop, as Mabel used to call them when she was a little girl and I was a little kitten.”
And that is where Blackie was. The train Mrs. Thompson had taken had reached the station, and she had gotten out with her cat in the basket.
“My, I did not know the country was as noisy as this,” thought Blackie. But she was not quite in the country yet, you see. Mrs. Thompson had to take a wagon to get to her country place.
Blackie felt her basket being set down and she heard Mrs. Thompson talking to some man about trunks and boxes, and about bringing up a carriage, and things like that.
Then, all at once, Blackie noticed that the cover of her basket was loose. There was a hole out of which she could put her head.
“I guess I’ll get a breath of fresh air and look around,” said Blackie to herself. Out of the basket she popped her head, and she saw Mrs. Thompson standing a little way off, on the station platform, talking to the baggage-man. On the track, to one side, was the train which had brought Blackie and Mrs. Thompson to the country. The engine was puffing, and the bell was ringing, for the train was about to start off again.
All of a sudden there was a dreadfully loud noise, almost like a gun being fired, and then followed a loud whistle.