Guest Story

Since I haven't started writing a new story yet about the Parker family, I decided to post a new story I'd written to keep people entertained. Perhaps you can pretend that Elizabeth wrote it, and then it will be associated with the Parker family.

Covered Wagons and Steam Trains
  
Nellie gazed out the window, watching trees and buildings fly by. What fun it is to ride on a train! she thought. Nellie and her family: her father, mother, younger brother Robert, and younger sister Charlotte, along with her grandfather, were traveling on rails to bring her older brother Percy home for the Christmas holidays. Percy was away at boarding school in New York, far from their home in Kentucky, and Nellie was very excited to see him.
  
“How long it has been since we've seen Percy!” she cried aloud to no one in particular.
  
“Indeed!” replied her grandfather, “but, we are quite blessed to be able to see him at all during his time in school.”
  
“How come, Grandfather?” inquired Robert.
  
“Why?” corrected his mother, straightening her bonnet.
  
“Yeth, why Grandfather?” lisped Charlotte, “Grandfather will tell me, won’t he?”
  
“Yes, I will,” assured Grandfather, pulling the little girl on his lap. “You see, when I was your age...” and he paused while Nellie and Robert scurried over to his seat on the train and snuggled close to him, their eyes bright with anticipation.
  
“Go on, Grandfather,” Nellie exclaimed. “I love to hear your stories of when you were little like us.”
  
“Of course, I was just waiting for you to get ready,” he replied, adjusting his cap on his head. “Ahem,” he cleared his throat.
  
“Oh, get on with it, Grandfather!” demanded Robert.
  
“Robert Cole Weston!” Father scolded, “Respect your elders!”
  
“Beg pardon, Grandfather,” Robert uttered ashamedly.
  
“You are entirely forgiven,” Grandfather responded, “I was impatient when I was a little boy like you too.”
  
“But I’m almost nine! I’m not so little!”
  
“True, True! I was impatient to grow up too.”
  
“Grandfather, pleathe tell uth the thtory, pleathe,” begged the little one on his lap, patting his leathery cheek.
  
“Oh, dear, I’m sorry, quite forgot, quite forgot,” muttered Grandfather, “Well, let’s see, where was I? Ah! Yes! When I was a little boy...”
  
At this, his son let out a little chuckle.
  
“Peter! You’re as bad as the rest, keeping poor Charlotte from her story, and Nellie too!” cried his wife.
  
“Oh, Hettie, they can afford to wait a trifling moment, we’re hardly started on our long journey,” he contended.