Snowballs
One morning, the engines woke up to see a thick blanket of snow lying on the ground. In fact, the entire island was covered in snow! "Botheration!" said Thomas "I'll have to wear my snowplough." The others just rolled their eyes, they heard Thomas complain about his snowplough before.
Just then, the Fat Controller came to see the engines. "Engines!" He said "As you may know, there has been a snowstorm last night so Nia and James, you two clear out Wellsworth and Edward's branch line. Henry and Rebecca, you two help Donald and Douglas on the mainline. And Percy, you go help clear out on the Little Western. The rest of you, normal jobs but go slow, as there is ice on the ground, so no high speeds. Especially you Gordon!" Gordon just groaned. "Yes Sir!" The engines said and set off to work.
Along Thomas' Branchline, there is a school. It was built a few years ago and it was not far from the tracks. The field, where the children did recess, was the closest to the tracks. A strong fence was built to prevent any children going on the tracks.
As Thomas approached the field, he saw some children playing in the field. Thomas whistled to them. "Hello!" He said, however he didn't get a reply back nor did the children wave. What they did do was throw snowballs at Thomas. "OOF!" He cried as he was bombarded with snowballs.
By the time Thomas arrived at Ffarquhar, His blue paint was covered by snow. Just then, Toby arrived. "Thomas, what happened to you?" Asked Toby "You've look like you gotten into a snow drift!" Thomas explained what had happened at the field.
"They did the same to me." Replied Toby, once Thomas had finished. "They don't know that it is dangerous to throw things at engines." Thomas agreed.
Soon, Thomas ran round his train and waited for the guard's whistle. Soon it blew and Thomas set off. "I hope, I don't run into the children again." He thought.
However, when they got to the field, the children were there, primed with snowballs. This time, Thomas didn't whistle. But the children threw the snowballs anyways. One snowball hit Thomas' driver, causing him to fall off the footplate. The fireman tried to catch him but he to fell off.
By pure luck, The fireman managed to put on the brakes before he fell out and Thomas came to an skidding halt. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but Thomas' driver was livid. So was Thomas and the fireman. When they got to the next station, The driver and fireman talked to the station master about the situation at once. Soon, Toby came to collect Annie and Clarabel. And Thomas went back to the field.
When they arrived, the children were ready to throw the snowballs, but the driver and fireman stopped them. They had some stren words with the children. "We're sorry." apologized the children, once the driver and fireman had finished. "We thought it was fun to throw snowballs at trains. But it's not, we won't do it again, we promise!"
The crew and Thomas accepted the apology and for the rest of the day, no more incidents happened. I think it's best for everyone to forget it, don't you?