A/N Respect my writing.
Hey, it's me, Edward. I was told to tell this story and I shall because it's one of my duties on that basis. I'm a very old engine, so I'm wise enough to know it's what I should do. I can't let everyone down and make them unhappy.
I was getting old. My bearings were worn and I clanked as I puffed along. I was taking empty cattle cars to a market town.
The sun shone, birds sang, but I was heading for trouble. I found that out later and it had to do with cows, the cause of all the trouble in this story.
"Come on. Come on," I puffed.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed the cars.
I puffed and clanked. The cars rattled and screamed.
Some cows were grazing nearby. They were not used to trains. The noise and smoke disturbed them, I came to realize. Even if I hadn't been clanking like a pile of old iron, as James not long after claimed I did, I'd still have been making noise.
As I clanked by, they broke through the fence and ran across the line. A coupling was broken and some cars were left behind. That was the cow-caused trouble.
I felt a jerk but didn't take much notice. I was used to cattle cars.
"Bother those cars," I thought. "Why can't they come quietly?" I was at the next station before we realized what had happened. Driver didn't notice more than I had when the cows broke my train.
When Gordon and Henry heard about the accident, they laughed and boasted. "Fancy allowing cows to break his train. They wouldn't dare do that to us. We'd show them!" They might have become my friends, but they could still be arrogant. Henry probably just acted arrogant due to being around Gordon, as he's said to be a gentle giant among us engines, that Henry.
Old Toby was cross. "You couldn't help it, Edward. They've never met cows. I have and I know the trouble they are." Now, I might be even older than Toby, but he's a wise old engine, just like me.
Some days later Gordon rushed through my station. "Poop, poop! Mind the cows! Hurry, hurry, hurry," puffed Gordon.
"Don't make such a fuss, don't make such a fuss," grumbled his coaches.
A long stretch of line lay ahead. In the distance was a bridge. It seemed to Gordon there was something on the bridge. His driver thought so, too. I heard all about this later, so I knew what happened to my friends.
"Whoa, Gordon," he said, and shut off steam. I know some call us iron horses, which might be why my friend's driver said "Whoa" to him. Someone once said that's a word to stop a horse.
"Pooh!" said Gordon. "It's only a cow. SHOO! SHOO!"
He moved slowly onto the bridge, but the cow wouldn't "shoo."
She had lost her calf and felt lonely. "Moo!" she said sadly.
Everyone tried to send her away, but she wouldn't go.
Henry arrived. "What's this? A cow. I'll soon settle her. Be off! Be off!"
"Moo!" said the cow.
Henry backed away nervously. "I don't want to hurt her."
At the next station, Henry's conductor told them about the cow and warned the signalman that the line was blocked.
"That must be Bluebell," said the porter. "Her calif is here, ready to go to market. Percy will take her along."
At the bridge, Bluebell was very pleased to see her calf again and the porter led them away.
"Not a word. Keep it dark," whispered Gordon and Henry to each other. They felt rather silly. But the story soon spread.
"Well, well, well," I chuckled. "Two big engines afraid of a cow."
"Afraid? Rubbish!" said Gordon. "We didn't want the poor thing to hurt herself by running up against us. We stopped so as not to excite her. You see what I mean, my dear Edward."
"Yes, Gordon," I said.
Gordon felt somehow that I saw only too well!
A/N I used some TRS in this one.
