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Rufus thought he looked nice.

    "Rufus Moffat, Twenty-seven New Dollar Street, five-and-a-half years old. Hughie and me have to get back to school."
    The man pushed his cap back and scratched his head.
    "Lost?" he asked.
    "Not exactly," replied Rufus. "Not yet anyhow. But we have to get back to school."
    "You say you live on New Dollar Street? Don't know of any New Dollar Street."
    "Sure, Number Twenty-seven. Chief Mulligan lives on one end."
    "Never heard of the man."
    "Well, if we could only get back to Cranbury, I could find it," said Rufus.
    "Oh—Cranbury. Is that where you come from?" the man asked in astonishment.
    "Yes, New Dollar Street," Rufus said.
    "Well, I don't see how you got here without no one seein' you. But if that's where you come from, that's where you better go back to."
    "If only we could go back on a train, we'd be right at school," said Rufus. "Only trouble is,
he
doesn't want to go to school."
    The man looked at Hughie. He clicked his tongue against his teeth and shook his head.
    "I never," he said. "They ain't many locals to Cranbury this time o' day. But come along, I'll find out."
    The man left them for a minute and came back with a timetable.
    "Ain't no local for three hours," he said. "Only westbound train is the Bay State Express, comin' in in three minutes."
    As if to confirm this statement, a mysterious voice called out, "Bay State Express—On time. Bay State Express—On time. Track nine. Eleven forty-five. Track nine."
    "Doesn't the Bay State ever stop in Cranbury?" asked Rufus.
    "Never," said the man.
    "All aboard Bay State Express! ALL ABOARD Bay State. Track nine."
    "Never," repeated the man in overalls. "But who knows? C'mon."
    With that, he grabbed Hughie and Rufus by the arm, tore down the tracks to track nine, where the engine of the Bay State Express was hissing and steaming, just itching to be off.
    "Hey, Dick," called the trackman to the engineer.
    "Hey yourself, Bob," answered the engineer, grinning and leaning out of the cab.
    "Listen, Dick; here are two kids—lost—come on a freight train from Cranbury—they gotta be returned. How about stopping thirty seconds to let them off?"
    "Couldn't be done," answered the engineer. "Bay State never stops in Cranbury—straight through to New York."
    Rufus's heart sank. So did Hughie's. However, they both had faith in this man, Bob, of theirs.
    Bob said, "Well, the New York, New Haven, and Hartford got them here. The way I look at it, they ought to git 'em back."
    "M-m-m," said the engineer, "ask the Stationmaster."
    "Wait here," said Bob to Rufus and Hughie.
    Then Bob tore down the station and it seemed only a second before he was back.
    Inside the station, that voice could be heard,
    "Last call for Bay State Express—track nine. Bay State Express—track nine."

    "'Board," cried the conductors.
    "He says yup," said Bob, boosting Rufus and Hughie into the engine cab.
    Then whistles sounded, a huge blast of steam went up into the sky—the train was off. Hughie and Rufus waved their caps after Bob, whom they could see for a second waving his cap after them.
    Goodness, this train was just speeding along. Of course, Rufus and Hughie couldn't stand too close to the engineer. But they could watch the fireman, and they saw enough to see that running an engine was a marvelous job.
    The express whizzed over the tracks the freight train had taken so long to cross a little while before. Rufus and Hughie could hardly tell where they were. And in exactly three minutes after leaving the New Haven station, the express train came to a stop—the fireman lifted the two boys down—the engineer grinned and waved to them, and off the train went with everybody aboard staring out the window to find out why the express, that wasn't supposed to stop until it reached New York, had stopped in this funny little town.
    Rufus and Hughie waved after the train until it was just a speck in the distance. Then Rufus thought about school again.
    "Come on now," he