Page:The railway children (IA railwaychildren00nesb 1).pdf/248

 "Then why do you see them always on Christmas cards and valentines with letters round their necks? How would they know where to go if they couldn't read?"

"That's only in pictures. You never saw one really with letters round its neck."

"Well, I have a pigeon, then; at least Daddy told me they did. Only it was under their wings and not round their necks, but it comes to the same thing, and—"

"I say," interrupted Bobbie, "there's to be a paper-chase to-morrow."

"Who?" Peter asked.

"Grammar School. Perks thinks the hare will go along by the line at first. We might go along the cutting. You can see a long way from there."

The paper-chase was found to be a more amusing subject of conversation than the reading powers of swallows. Bobbie had hoped it might be. And next morning Mother let them take their lunch and go out for the day to see the paper-chase.

"If we go to the cutting," said Peter, "we shall see the workmen, even if we miss the paper-chase."

Of course it had taken some time to get the line clear from the rocks and earth and trees that