The Railway Children

Perhaps the children would have loved the canal as much as the railway, but for two things. One was that they had found the railway first – on that first, wonderful morning when the house and the country and the moors and rocks and great hills were all new to them. They had not found the canal till some days later. The other reason was that everyone on the railway had been kind to them – the Station Master, the Porter, and the old gentleman who waved. And the people on the canal were anything but kind.

The people on the canal were, of course, the bargees, who steered the slow barges up and down, or walked beside the old horses that trampled up the mud of the towing-path, and strained at the long tow-ropes.

Peter had once asked one of the bargees the time, and had been told to ‘get out of that,’ in a tone so fierce that he did not stop to say anything about his having just as much right on the towing-path as the man himself. Indeed, he did not even think of saying it till some time later.

Then another day when the children thought they would like to fish in the canal, a boy in a barge threw lumps of coal at them, and one of these hit Phyllis on the back of the neck She was just stooping down to tie up her bootlace – and though the coal hardly hurt at all it made her not care very much about going on fishing.

On the bridge, however, Roberta felt quite safe, because she could look down on the canal, and if any boy showed signs of meaning to throw coal, she could duck behind the parapet.

Presently there was a sound of wheels, which was just what she expected.

The wheels were the wheels of the Doctor’s dogcart, and in the cart, of course, was the Doctor.

He pulled up and called out:

‘Hullo, head-nurse! Want a lift?’

‘I wanted to see you,’ said Bobbie.

‘Your mother’s not worse, I hope?’ said the Doctor.

‘No – but –’

‘Well, step in, then, and we’ll go for a drive.’

Roberta climbed in and the brown horse was made to turn round – which it did not like at all, for it was looking forward to its tea – I mean its oats.

‘This is jolly,’ said Bobbie, as the dogcart flew along the road by the canal.

‘We could throw a stone down any one of your three chimneys,’ said the Doctor, as they passed the house.

‘Yes,’ said Bobbie, ‘but you’d have to be a jolly good shot.’

‘How do you know I’m not?’ said the Doctor. ‘Now, then, what’s the trouble?’

Bobbie fidgeted with the hook of the driving apron.

‘Come, out with it,’ said the Doctor.

‘It’s rather hard, you see,’ said Bobbie, ‘to out with it; because of what Mother said.’

‘What did Mother say?’

‘She said I wasn’t to go telling everyone that we’re poor. But you aren’t everyone, are you?’

‘Not at all,’ said the Doctor cheerfully. ‘Well?’

‘Well, I know doctors are very extravagant – I mean expensive, and Mrs Viney told me that her doctoring only cost her twopence a week because she belonged to a Club.’

‘Yes?’

‘You see she told me what a good doctor you were, and I asked her how she could afford you, because she’s much poorer than we are. I’ve been in her house and I know. And then she told me about the Club, and I thought I’d ask you – and – oh, I don’t want Mother to be worried! Can’t we be in the Club, too, the same as Mrs Viney?’

The Doctor was silent. He was rather poor himself, and he had been pleased at getting a new family to attend. So I think his feelings at that minute were rather mixed.

‘You aren’t cross with me, are you?’ said Bobbie, in a very small voice.

The Doctor roused himself.

‘Cross? How could I be? You’re a very sensible little woman. Now look here, don’t you worry. I’ll make it all right with your Mother, even if I have to make a special brand-new Club all for her. Look here, this is where the Aqueduct begins.’

‘What’s an Aque – what’s its name?’ asked Bobbie.

‘A water bridge,’ said the Doctor. ‘Look.’

The road rose to a bridge over the canal. To the left was a steep rocky cliff with trees and shrubs growing in the cracks of the rock. And the canal here left off running along the top of the hill and started to run on a bridge of its own – a great bridge with tall arches that went right across the valley.

Bobbie drew a long breath.

‘It is grand, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘It’s like pictures in the History of Rome.’

‘Right!’ said the Doctor, ‘that’s just exactly what it is like. The Romans were dead nuts on aqueducts. It’s a splendid piece of engineering.’

‘I thought engineering was making engines.’

‘Ah, there are different sorts of engineering – making roads and bridges and tunnels is one kind. And making fortifications is another. Well, we must be turning back. And, remember, you aren’t to worry about doctor’s bills or you’ll be ill yourself, and then I’ll send you a bill as long as the aqueduct.’

When Bobbie had parted from the Doctor at the top of the field that ran down from the road to Three Chimneys, she could not feel that she had done wrong. She knew that Mother would perhaps think differently. But Bobbie felt that for once she was the one who was right, and she scrambled down the rocky slope with a really happy feeling.

Phyllis and Peter met her at the back door. They were unnaturally clean and neat, and Phyllis had a red bow in her hair. There was only just time for Bobbie to make herself tidy and tie up her hair with a blue bow before a little bell rang.

‘There!’ said Phyllis, ‘that’s to show the surprise is ready. Now you wait till the bell rings again and then you may come into the dining-room.’

So Bobbie waited.

‘Tinkle, tinkle,’ said the little bell, and Bobbie went into the dining-room, feeling rather shy. Directly she opened the door she found herself, as it seemed, in a new world of light and flowers and singing. Mother and Peter and Phyllis were standing in a row at the end of the table. The shutters were shut and there were twelve candles on the table, one for each of Roberta’s years. The table was covered with a sort of pattern of flowers, and at Roberta’s place was a thick wreath of forget-me-nots and several most interesting little packages. And Mother and Phyllis and Peter were singing – to the first part of the tune of St Patrick’s Day. Roberta knew that Mother had written the words on purpose for her birthday. It was a little way of Mother’s on birthdays. It had begun on Bobbie’s fourth birthday when Phyllis was a baby. Bobbie remembered learning the verses to say to Father ‘for a surprise’. She wondered if Mother had remembered, too. The four-year-old verse had been:

Daddy dear, I’m only four

And I’d rather not be more.

Four’s the nicest age to be,

Two and two and one and three.

What I love is two and two,

Mother, Peter, Phil, and you.