The Moffat Museum (18 page)

Rufus stepped on it, but it didn't ring. "Needs polishing," he said. "Or maybe it doesn't ring unless the trolley is connected to the wire."

Bennie smiled. He had a friend who knew so much!

Soon they felt they knew everything about this trolley car. There were even straps to hang on to, just like regular big trolleys. There were two radiators for heat, one on each side. They could sleep in this trolley, live in it, but best of all, just have it for around Cranbury, go here and there, get listed on Captain Moody's schedule so nothing like the Bridgeport Express would come clanging along behind them and make them shift over to another track in a big hurry!

When they got out, they would see what it looked like underneath; maybe that nice Jim Cullom would hold his lantern down there so they could take a look. Just then Jim Cullom and another workman Rufus had never seen before came back with their black-tin lunch boxes. Rufus and Uncle Bennie opened the door themselves and hopped down.

Jim Cullom sat down with his friend on the running board of an open trolley near the little trolley. They opened their lunch boxes. They put their lantern down beside them, and it cast some light under the little trolley car.

Now Rufus and Bennie had seen everything.

It was time for Rufus to speak. "Mr. Cullom," he said, "me and my friend Ben Pye and my brother, Joey ... you know him, you know me ... well, we would like to buy this little old trolley car that nobody uses anymore. Joey and me have been watching it for a long, long time. It never goes out. We'd like to buy it and take it out once in a while."

The second man said, "H-m-m. Want to buy this little old trolley car?"

"Yes, mister. Could we? How much does it cost?"

"Cost...? Well-ll, lessee," said that second man. "One dollar!"

Rufus and Bennie were surprised. A dollar is a lot of money for something nobody uses. Before Rufus could answer, that new man and Jim Cullom walked off, laughing. "Ha-ha-ha!" echoed throughout the big carbarn and to the back corner where Rufus and Bennie, stunned at such a piece of good news, were standing.

Rufus was a little puzzled. Why were they laughing? Oh, now he had it. It struck them funny that anybody would want to buy what they thought so little of that they stuck it in the farthest, darkest corner of the carbarn.

Rufus and Bennie tore after the men and caught up with them. Rufus said, "Don't sell it to anybody else. Keep it for us. We'll be back with the dollar as soon as we can. Don't let anybody know, don't show it..."

"Oh, no!" said the new man. "Oh, no! We won't tell a living soul. One dollar and it's yours..."

The two men sat down on the running board of an open trolley and lit their pipes. They didn't even look up and wave as Rufus and Bennie tore past them and out!

They ran down the street. Maybe Joey was still in the show window. Breathlessly Rufus said, "Joey and me always knew that someday we would own that little trolley car. Wait till he hears! Maybe by now he has earned a dollar or saved it or something. A dollar's a lot...!"

"Same price the Pyes paid for Ginger," said Uncle Bennie. "Rachel and Jerry's dog, Ginger ... Ginger Pye."

"And was
he
ever worth it!" exclaimed Rufus. "What a dog!"

"What a dog is right!" said Bennie.

"We'll take him for a ride sometimes," panted Rufus.

"He'll love it ... loves to ride in cars, Sam Doody's..." panted Bennie.

"When me and Joey own it, our little trolley car, you can be our special helper, our right-hand man. You can do anything, Bennie," said Rufus.

"Gee, thanks," said Bennie.

When they reached Crowley's Department Store, Joey was just coming out. Rufus saw Mrs. Crowley hand Joey something, money probably ... Joey's pay. "Thank you, Joey," she said, and closed the screen door fast not to let a fly in.

Now! Now Rufus could tell Joey the great news!

Joey folded the bill—Rufus saw that it was a crisp new one—and he put it in his pants pocket.

"How much did the lady pay you?" asked Rufus.

"One dollar," said Joey. "Twenty-five cents a week. She owed me for four weeks."

Rufus was stupefied. One dollar equals one little trolley car! Finally he spoke. "Great news, Joey! Great news! Great news! But we better sit on the bench on the Green. We don't want any spies around listening."

They sat down on a bench.

"Listen, Joey! You saw Bennie and me going to the carbarn. I showed him all over the barn, the trolleys, the switches ... I was leading slowly up to the you-know-what..."

"The little trolley car...
our
little trolley car," said Joey, smiling.

"Listen to this then," said Rufus. "That nice man, Jim Cullom ... remember him, brother of the iceman?...Well, he came out from under a trolley and saw Bennie and me admirin' the trolley. You know what he said? He said we could sit in it, 'xamine it from the inside. He unlocked the door with a special key ... we'll probably have one someday ... and we got in. We 'xamined everything. We know how everything works. We could all ride it down to Savin Rock right now, will, when—"

"That must have been nice," said Joey. "I never
sat
in it."

"You will! You will. Listen. Pretty soon that nice man named Jim Cullom came along with another man. They sat down on the running board of an open trolley near our little one and opened their lunch boxes. That was when I asked the men if my brother, Joey, and I could buy the little trolley car that sits in the back of the carbarn and never goes anywhere.

"The new man didn't think it over at all. Right away he said he'd sell it to us."

"He did?" said Joey incredulously. "Why didn't we ever ask before?"

"Never had the nerve. So then I asked, 'How much does it cost?' I thought he would say ten dollars at least. But no! Guess!"

"A hundred?" guessed Joey.

"No!" said Rufus triumphantly. "ONE DOLLAR!"

"ONE DOLLAR!" repeated Joey. "You're kiddin'."

"I'm not kiddin'," said Rufus. "Am I kiddin', Bennie?"

Bennie solemnly shook his head.

"Sitting there on the running board of the open trolley car, that new man said we could buy it for a dollar. Jim Cullom didn't say anything. Maybe he was just thinkin', thinkin' he might miss the little trolley."

Joey reached in his pocket. He took out his crisp new one-dollar bill. Rufus could hear how it crinkled as he folded it more tightly. "Here!" he said, as though he were John D. Rockefeller. "Take this dollar and buy our little trolley car!"

Rufus took the dollar, all tightly folded, and put it in a little pocket in his khaki shorts that had a button on it which he rarely used, but he did now all right. "I'll pay my share when I can earn it, or find it," said Rufus.

"You'd'a thought somebody else would have bought it long ago," mused Joey.

"Probably nobody but us noticed it, or maybe they didn't have a dollar, or maybe they didn't know how to make it go," said Rufus. "But we know everything, don't we, Bennie?"

Bennie nodded and smiled. "Yes," he said. "Even underneath parts."

Rufus and Joey had not forgotten about Uncle Bennie. Should they let Bennie be a partner? But the little trolley had always been Joey and Rufus's.

Rufus knew what to do. "Bennie," said Rufus. "Since you have sat in Joey's and my little trolley car, you can be our one and only crewman. You can polish the clanger, turn the switch in the tracks sometimes, sweep up after we take a little trip ... lots of things..."

Bennie was delighted. "Wait till I tell Rachel and Jerry, and Ma and Pa!" he said. "I like to polish."

"We'll let them have a ride once in a while, and Jane. Just special people, who know not to drop chewing gum on the floor or stick it under the seat."

"Where we going to keep our trolley car?" asked Joey. "No tracks on Ashbellows Place."

"Don't worry, Joey," said Rufus. "When I hand over the dollar and the trolley belongs to us, I'll ask those nice men if the little trolley can stay, except when we take it out for a little ride, right where it's always been. Except they will have to put a sign on front saying something. We'll think what ... maybe SPECIAL!"

Joey laughed. "
Special
all right. And sounds sensible. I wish I could come along when you hand over the dollar, but I can't. Have to mow a couple of lawns. Remember to have something in writing, Rufus, saying we are the owners ... a receipt for the dollar. Bye!"

Joey swung himself onto his bike, rang the bell three times, and sped away.

Rufus looked after him. He wished Joey could have come, too. "We won't ever take it out without Joey. Right, Bennie?"

"Right," said Bennie. "But," he said, "we have to hurry. Someone might come along and say he would give them two dollars, even three ... five!"

"The man said he would hold it for us," said Rufus. "All day."

"And he was a nice man," said Bennie. "Gave me a bite of his pickle."

They took a drink at the drinking trough on the corner of the Green. Revived, they raced back to the carbarn. At first they couldn't spot the two nice men. They went way to the back of the carbarn. There the little trolley car was, just waiting for them!

Where were those nice men? At last! One came out from under one trolley, the other from another trolley. They sat down again on the running board of the open trolley car where the big business had been arranged. The men mopped their faces with red handkerchiefs, for they were sooty and grimy and smelled of oil.

Jim Cullom and his friend told one funny joke after another. They laughed a great deal, each one trying to be funnier than the other. They didn't notice Rufus and Uncle Bennie standing nearby.

"Come on, Bennie. We have to give them the dollar now. They might go away," Rufus said. Bennie nodded.

"We have the dollar, Mr. Cullom," said Rufus. "To pay for the little trolley car." He and Bennie put loving hands on the side of their trolley. Rufus undid the button of his little square pocket and got out the dollar bill.

There was a silence. The men looked at Rufus and at Bennie and at the crisp new dollar bill. They didn't say anything. They stared, half amused, half puzzled. They didn't seem to know what to say.

Rufus held out Joey's dollar bill, carefully unfolded it, and showed it to the men so they could see it was not a counterfeit or a toy bill from a money game.

"See?" said Rufus. "Here's the dollar. We said we'd be back. So now me and Joey and Bennie can take it out sometimes if you will let us keep it here, right here where it's used to being."

The men remained silent. Neither of them reached out for Rufus's dollar.

"Well?" said Rufus. "Here's the dollar. Joey asked me to get a receipt."

Jim Cullom said nothing. He rubbed the sole of his heavy black shoe back and forth on the sandy part next to the tracks. Finally he said, "Bill?"

The new man, Bill, said, "Aw, kids! I was jokin'."

"Jokin'!" said Rufus. "Just jokin'!"

The man didn't answer. He nodded his head.

Jim Cullom didn't look at Rufus at all. He bent over and tied his shoelaces tighter.

Rufus and Bennie tore out of the carbarn and all the way home to the Moffats' house. They sat down on the curb under the big elm tree in front. They were waiting for Joey, who came along in a few minutes. Rufus handed Joey his crisp Crowley one-dollar bill.

"The guy said he was just jokin'," said Rufus.

Joey folded his dollar neatly again and put it back in his pocket. He said, "People should not play jokes."

"Only in the funny papers," said Uncle Bennie.

Joey was silent for a moment, looking at Rufus. He said, "Well, we can still call it 'our' trolley car. We can go and look at it. Me and you and Bennie can go ... whenever we want, still
wish
it was ours, like always."

Rufus said, "Maybe we should go back ... me and
you,
Joey. Maybe they thought they shouldn't sell it to fellows as little as me and Uncle Bennie. But you! You have a suit with long pants. Put it on and let's go back."

"Naw!" said Joey. "They really were just jokin'. And I can't go now. I still have one more lawn to mow." Joey rode away.

He couldn't help it. Rufus began to cry a little. Tears made a clean line down his cheeks. Bennie pretended not to notice and bowed his head in sadness.

But someone had noticed. This was the iceman, Spec Cullom, whose horse came clop-a-cloppa up the street right now. Spec jumped out of his green ice wagon and threw a heavy round iron weight on the grass to keep his horse, Nelly, from deciding to go on. She stomped one foot or another and switched her tail to shoo away the flies, but she had to stay.

"What's wrong, Rufus?" he asked. He and Rufus had been friends for a long time. "Waxworks face melting to smithereens? Here!"

Spec went to the back of the wagon and with his big bare hands picked up a jagged piece of ice and offered it to Rufus.

Rufus shook his head. This kindness made the tears flow all the more. He lowered his face on his bare knees so Spec would not see him in this desolate situation.

Spec put the big chunk of ice back in the wagon and picked out two small ones for Rufus and Bennie to lick. Rufus licked his with his face still lowered, and the cool drops trickled down his bare brown legs.