THE LOCAL TRAIN DOWN to Fairview consisted of a small engine with a shrill whistle, a milk car, and two rattling coaches. Banging along for two hours on this Toonerville Trolley, Vicki never felt sure when or if she would get to her destination. But the engine’s biting soft-coal smoke, and Mr. Stark, the ancient conductor who knew every passenger, made Vicki feel she was already home.
Arriving at 6:00 P.M., more or less on time, Vicki stepped off the train at the Fairview platform, and right into the midst of her old high school crowd.
Here were Dickie Brown, still clowning but grown taller and handsomer—his amiable sister, Lynn, whom Vicki had sat next to at school, because both their names began with B—Tootsie Miller, and she was still jolly and still too fat—the Kramer boys with their
