A Children's Story by:
Paul Breitsprecher

Remember when Mrs. Humdinger's second grade class and all of Hometown were caught in the Time Warp and how they met Hiawatha? Remember how they wanted Old Timer to help them find their way home, but he was away on vacation and wasn't even in the Time Warp? Well, Old Timer came back from his vacation, and the next week he quietly came into Mrs. Humdinger's classroom and sat down in the back. 

 Mrs. Humdinger smiled a welcome, and the girls and boys filled the air with questions: "Where have you been?" "what did you do on your vacation?" "Did you bring any pictures?" "How about a story?" (Continued Below)

Old Timer blushed and "a-hemmed"; he was really kind of shy. "I don't want to interrupt your school work," he said, " But I missed you all and wanted to see how you were getting along."

Mrs. Humdinger said, "We're glad you're here, and Class, I'm sure that if we ask him politely, our dear friend will tell us all about his vacation." 

The boys and girls joined in, "Yes, please do, please do!" 

Old Timer looked very pleased, as he answered, "Okay. Where should I begin?"

Joey spoke first. "At the beginning, Grampa" (Joey liked to call Old Timer "Grampa"). "Where did you go?"

 Old Timer got up and went to the front of the room so that everyone could hear him. He said, "I went to visit my niece, Miss Nan Hotshot, in New York City, and…" 

"Did you bring back any pictures?" interrupted Nicky, who liked to stir things up. 

"No, I'm afraid not," admitted Old Timer, "I'll just have to tell you about it." The second graders groaned in disappointment. They liked pictures.

"It was this way," continued Old Timer. "I went to New York City to visit my niece, Nan Hotshot, who is a computer expert working on ways to speed up travel in New York. She lives in a skyscraper on Park Avenue, and …" 

"But you didn't bring back any pictures?" interrupted Nicky again. 

Mrs. Humdinger looked stern. "Please remember our manners, class." Old Timer looked thoughtful, and looked up at the clock.

"I have an idea," said Old Timer. "it's an hour before lunchtime, and I will go home and phone Nan Hotshot in New York, and see if she can think of a way for me to show you around New York City this afternoon. So get all your work done this morning, and I will come back this afternoon to show you around New York City, if that's all right with you, Mrs. Humdinger." 

She replied, "I think that's a wonderful idea. We will get right to work so that we will be ready for you this afternoon. Thank you!" 

"You're welcome," said Old Timer as he left. "work hard, and I will see you later."

After lunch, Old Timer came back to the second-graders classroom. He was carrying a mysterious small black box with lots of buttons and keys on it. "Good afternoon, class, have I got a trip for you! See this black box? It's a special microcomputer Miss Hotshot faxed to me parcel post, and she's connected to it in New York. It's part of the famous Wishby System of simulated high-speed travel; and Nan is going to take us on a high-speed tour of New York City this afternoon! All you have to do is, close your eyes, let yourself go, and the Wishby System does the rest!" 

Eddie, the homesick boy wailed, "I don't want to leave Hometown, I'm afraid!" 

Mrs. Humdinger said soothingly, "It's all right, Eddie, we will all be together, won't we, Old Timer? I can come, too, can't I?" 

"Absolutely, Mrs. Humdinger," replied Old Timer. "Is everyone all set? Close your eyes and put your heads down on your desks, and hold on. Here we go!" Old Timer began punching buttons on his Wishby computer.

The room darkened for a second, then lightened again; there was a rumbling and clicking sound, and everything shook and wobbled a little. The classroom was gone, and instead they were all sitting in a long, narrow room with windows all along the sides. Outside the windows, scenery was rushing past-fields, woods, hills, towns, sometimes even glimpses of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. They were all in a railroad car speeding on a train. The second-graders pressed their noses to the windows, watching the scenery. So did Mrs. Humdinger. 

From Old Timer's Wishby computer came a cheerful voice: "I thought you would enjoy a train ride on your way to New York." It was Nan Hotshot who was guiding this trip electronically.

"Hey, I'm hungry!" yelled Katy, who liked eating whenever she was alone or with somebody. Old Timer pressed a button on his Wishby, and the train car changed into another car with tables in front of the windows. 

"This is a dining car, class," announced Mrs. Humdinger. "You order what you want to eat from the menus on the tables, and the waiters will bring it to you from the kitchen at the end of the car. Be sure to mind your manners!" 

"We will, Mrs. Humdinger," said the kids enthusiastically. Many of them had noticed that ice cream was on the menu. Soon the car was filled with sounds of contented munching and slurping. Charley, the sloppy one, spilled some of everything on his shirt, but he was happy, he was used to it. So was everybody else.

"Oh-h," yawned David, who always liked to relax, "I'm so sleepy." Old Timer pushed a button on his Wishby, and the dining car turned into a sleeping car, with a little room by each window. A bed came out of the wall. Some rooms had two beds, a lower one that came out of the wall, and an upper one that came out of the ceiling, and you had to climb up to it on a little ladder. These beds are called "berths." 

The bigger second-graders crawled in to the lower berths, and the smaller ones into upper berths. Some of the kids went right to sleep, rocked by the motion of the train. Others were so excited looking out the window while they lay in bed and watched the nighttime flow past, they hardly closed their eyes.

Old Timer pressed another button on Wishby. Now is was the next morning, and through the windows of the train on the right-hand side the kids could see a big river that ran right alongside the train. Nan's voice came from Old-Timer's Wishby: "Everybody up? That's the famous Hudson River you see. The train is following it right down into New York City."

Joey, Old Timer's special friend, was watching the Hudson River very closely, when suddenly he noticed something. Across the river was hilly, with woods and little streams flowing through them, crossed by little wooden bridges over them where a little dirt road wandered through the countryside. 

What Joey noticed was a skinny horse galloping along the dirt road as fast as it could go, and on the horse was a funny-looking skinny man in knee britches and long flapping coat hanging onto his horse with one hand, and his three-corned hat with the other. Behind them, another horse was chasing them with a strange figure wearing a big, flowing cape and no hat. In fact, the second rider didn't even have a head! 

"Hey," Joey yelled excitedly, "I know who that is, that's Ichabod Crane! And that's Tom Bones chasing him! I've got this on video at Grandma's house!" 

Mrs. Humdinger called, "Look, class, before our very eyes we are seeing the Legend of Sleepy Hollow which took place right here in this country the train is passing through!" Just before they passed out of sight, the second-graders saw the rider of the second horse rise up in his stirrups and hurl something at the first rider in the back; then they disappeared.

Joey was all excited, "He threw a pumpkin! He threw a pumpkin! Now Ichabod crane has disappeared!" 

Nan Hotshot's cheerful voice came from Old Timer's Wishby. "I thought I'd provide a little entertainment on your train ride. I hope you enjoyed it!"

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