Duncan's Golden Whistle Cap

1 fine morning when she arrived, Rosie’s golden whistle was outta order. They had worked late the night before and her driver and fireman had used it to hard boil their eggs for their dinner last night.

But something had gone terribly wrong, and the very next morning when she wanted to whistle real loudly at the other train engines, Rosie found out she could only make gurgling sounds. She was terribly upset about it.

“Never mind that, Rosie,” said her driver, “it must’ve been a bit of that egg shell which broke apart,” “We’ll clean it out eventually when we got plenty of time,” “meanwhile, nobody will ever mind.”

But Tiffany made rude comments about it.

“Shplee! Shplee!” mimicked Tiffany. “It’s shocking! If train engines don’t even whistle properly, they shouldn’t even try it.”

“Then why do you?” asked Henry.

“Why do I do what?” asked Tiffany.

“Try to whistle real loudly at other train engines of course.” Henry said with a smirk.

Shut the heck up! You’re just jealous.” Tiffany was proud of her loud golden whistle. “Mine’s way better than yours, anyway.”

“Listen, Tiffany,” said James. “If I had a golden whistle just like yours, do you know what I would do?” he paused impressively. “I would lose it.”

“That’s the idea!” spluttered Tiffany. “Golden whistles are very important, let me tell you.” “Train engines without golden whistles are not proper train engines at all.”

Tiffany went redder than ever with fury. Her steam pressure went up suddenly, and her safety-valves blew off, “Whoooooosh!”

“Hello there,” said her driver. “Just as you’re ready 1st, you better take the passenger train up ahead.”

“What?!? And leave my goods train behind?”

“Yes, Tiffany, Henry can do that.” “We can’t have you blowing off in here.” “Come on.”

Tiffany backed down on the coaches “whoooshing” angrily.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">When all was ready, she began with a rude jerk.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“Come on!” “Come on!” “COME ON!” she puffed.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“What’s bitten her?” wondered her driver. “She doesn’t like coaches, but she’s never been as bad as Daisy.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">Tiffany whistled real loudly at the least excuse.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“They’re just jealous, they’re just jealous,” she muttered as she bucketted along. “I’ll show ‘em!” “I’ll show ‘em!”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“She’s in a flaming temper about some crazy situations,” remarked her driver. She was relieved when they reached the end station safely. She looked Tiffany all over, but saw nothing wrong with her. She tried controlling her, but Tiffany still sizzled crossly. “It beats me,” she said at last.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“That’s something loose on her boiler,” she thought. “I’ll tighten it at the next station.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">But she never got the chance. It was the pig’s entire fault. He stood there on the railroad track eating his lunch from a lunch bucket. He took no notice of the railroad train.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">Tiffany stopped, but she wasn’t terrified. She had met him before, but he only made her fed up than usual.

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">She came very slowly whooshing steam from her cylinders.

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">“Shoo!” “Shoo!” “Shoo!”

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">The pig just walked around and went on eating his lunch from the lunch bucket. Tiffany was feeling exasperated. She tried whistling real loudly. She wanted to say ‘Get outta my way, you crazy animal!’ but she didn’t get very far. Her 2nd ‘peep’ turned into a gigantic ‘whooosh!’ just as her golden whistle-cap shot up like a rocket missile, and landed right into the field.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">The driver and the signal guard began looking for it, but some passengers objected.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“We can’t waste time with golden whistles,” they said. “We must catch our train ride.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">Tiffany was dismayed. “There are boards that are saying ‘impersonate train whistle sounds’,” she protested. “I’m not gonna pass those signs without whistling real loudly.” “That’s the rules.” “Please find it.”

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">“Sorry, Tiffany,” said the passengers. “We can’t wait.” “We’ll have to impersonate the train whistle sounds for you, that’s all.” And so it was arranged.

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">When they saw the sign, the signal guard, the driver and the passengers all impersonated train whistle sounds.

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">They made more noises than Tiffany ever did, and thought it splendid fun.

<p style="margin: 0.1in 0in 0pt">Tiffany mourned for her lost golden whistle that disappeared.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">Tiffany hoped her driver would give her a new golden whistle when they got back home. She was very disappointed.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“I got no spare golden whistles,” said the inspector sternly. “So you’ll need to wait.” “It serves you right for being such a crosspatch.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">Tiffany worked in the quarries for the rest of the afternoon. It was nearly night time when she reached the train engine shed.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“What’s that?” asked Henry as Tiffany came inside.

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“Shhh!” whispered James. “Take no notice.” “It’s an improper train engine.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“Why improper?” “She looks alright to me.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“It’s got no golden whistle.”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">“Oh dear!” said Henry. “How shocking!” “We don’t approve of her situations, do we?”

<p style="margin: 7.7pt 0in 0pt">End of story sequence………..