The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann

The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann by Josephine Lawrence
Illustrated by Thelma Gooch
NEW YORK: GROSSET & DUNLAP
(c) 1923 by Barse & Co.

The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann
CHAPTER I
A LITTLE GIRL ON A LONG JOURNEY

"Do you live on the train?" asked Elizabeth Ann.
The young colored woman, who was just slipping a clean blue frock
over the head of the little girl, laughed.
"Bless you, no, honey," she said in her pleasant voice. "I live in
Chicago and go home after every trip. There, you're buttoned up and
your hair-ribbon's tied. Is that the way your ma fixes it?"
Elizabeth Ann stood on tiptoe to see her hair-ribbon in the glass over
the wash-bowl.
"My mother makes it stand up higher," she answered.
Then so suddenly that no one was more surprised than Elizabeth Ann,
great tears came into her blue eyes. They would have run down her face
and splashed on the clean dress, if someone had not knocked at the
door of the dressing-room.

"Is my little girl ready for breakfast?" asked a deep voice.
Elizabeth Ann dried her eyes hastily. It would never do to have the
conductor think she was crying.
"She's all ready, Mr. Hobart," said the colored woman, straightening
her own white apron and the little girl's hair-ribbon, and opening the
door apparently all at once. "Here she is!"
The big, gray-haired man in the blue uniform of a train conductor held
out his hand.
"Well, Sister, you look as fresh as a daisy," he told her, smiling down at
her. "How did you like sleeping on the train?"
Elizabeth Ann thought for a minute.
"Why, I just slept," she replied carefully. "I thought it would be
exciting, but it wasn't, really."
"You're up a good half hour before the rest of the car," said the
conductor. "I like to see a little girl ready to get up mornings. Feel as if
you could eat a mite of breakfast?"
"Yes," she answered him, she was hungry.
"I'll take you to the dining-car," the conductor promised. "You'll be
around to-day if you're needed, won't you, Caroline?"
The young colored woman, whose name was Caroline, smiled, showing
beautiful even white teeth. She had a very kind, good-natured face, and
Elizabeth Ann was sure she should like her, though she had never seen
her until that morning.
"Yes, Mr. Hobart," said Caroline. "I'll be right here all day. The ladies
won't let me get very far away. And if little Missy wants me I'll know
it."
Elizabeth Ann put her small hand in the large one the conductor held

out to her, and together they walked through several cars until they
came to one Mr. Hobart said was the "diner."
A tall colored man with a white napkin over his arm, met them at the
door.
"This is a little lady I have in my charge, Fred," said Mr. Hobart,
steadying Elizabeth Ann as a lurch of the train almost knocked her off
her feet. "I want you to look out for her, see that she has a pleasant
table, and eats the right things, you know."
"Yes sir, yes sir," replied the colored man eagerly. "Here's a nice place,
right by the window. She's kind of little to be travelling all alone, now,
isn't she?"
The conductor was lifting Elizabeth Ann into a chair before one of the
tables, and she thought she heard him say, "Sh!" but she couldn't be
sure. The colored man fastened a large white napkin under her chin,
and when she looked up Mr. Hobart was turning to go.
"Aren't you going to eat breakfast?" asked Elizabeth Ann.
"Oh, I had mine an hour ago," said the big conductor. "You just tell
Fred what you want, and he'll bring it to you. And if I don't come back
for you, he'll show you the way to your car."
Elizabeth Ann felt a bit queer as the blue uniform, with Mr. Hobart in it,
went out of the car, but when she happened to glance across the aisle
and saw a little white-haired man sitting at another table with his
handkerchief to his eyes, she was so surprised she forgot the queer
feeling. Fred was at the other end of the car (she hoped he was telling
someone to bring her breakfast for she was really very hungry) and no
one seemed to be paying any attention to the gentleman who was
crying. There were not more than three or four other people in the car,
anyway, and each one was reading a newspaper.
Elizabeth Ann slipped out of her seat and crossed the aisle.

"Don't you feel well?" she said gently, putting a timid little hand on the
gentleman's coat sleeve.
He jumped as though she had startled him,