“It’s a train!” he cried aloud.
And he began flashing his light bravely while he swayed
from side to side, for Mrs. Ladybug had told him that
he must swing his light—if he expected
to stop the train.
And all the while the train tore on towards Freddie
Firefly. To his great surprise it showed not
the slightest sign of stopping. And in spite
of what Mrs. Ladybug had said, Freddie Firefly began
to be afraid that it wasn’t going to pause at
all.
He soon saw that if he did not do something quickly
the train would run over him. But by the time
he had made up his mind to jump off the track, out
of harm’s way, it was too late for him to escape
in that fashion.
So Freddie Firefly crawled hurriedly into a chink
beneath the railroad tie on which he had been sitting.
And with a horrible scream the train thundered over
him. To Freddie’s dismay it paid no heed
to his flashing light, though he thought it must surely
have seen that signal.
Those were terrible moments for Freddie Firefly, while
the train was passing above him. The frightful
noise, the trembling of the ground, the rush of the
air—all those things made him wonder whether
he could ever reach home again, alive and unharmed.
He was even more scared than he had been when he found
himself in the power of that dreadful creature, Jennie
Junebug.
WHY FREDDIE WAS GLAD
Even after the train had rushed shrieking into the
village two miles away, and the echoes had grown still,
Freddie Firefly cowered in his hiding-place on the
railroad track, crouched in the chink beneath one of
the ties.
At last he crept out, trembling in every limb.
But in spite of his terror he skipped off the track
very spryly.
Safe at one side of the rails, which gleamed in the
moonlight, Freddie felt himself all over, to make
sure that he had broken no bones.
“I seem to be unhurt,” he mused.
“But never, never again will I listen to anything
that Mrs. Ladybug says.”
And having made himself that solemn promise, he hurried
away toward Farmer Green’s meadow, which he
reached just before dawn.
As he crossed the fields he thought that he smelled
smoke. But he couldn’t see a blaze anywhere.
And when he came to the meadow he was so eager to
dance that he forgot to ask anybody if there had been
a fire.
Luckily he arrived in time to take part in the last
dance of the night. And after the dance was over
he astonished all his family with the strange tale
that he told them.
Before going to their homes all Freddie’s relations
gathered around him to listen to his story of the
night’s adventure. And there were many
“Ohs” and “Ahs” when he reached
the point where the train ran over him.
“You’re lucky you didn’t have a
leg cut off,” his favorite cousin remarked,
“though that wouldn’t have been so bad
as losing a wing.”
