Tiny Town station was buzzing with activity as all the engines were busy haulingfreight. To instruct and supervise them all is the duty of the Station Master, whowas pouring over the order chart for the day.All was progressing smoothly, until he heard,“Good Morning, Sir”, he turned around raisinghis eyebrows, as he recognised the voice.“Oh!, Good Morning Manu,” he greeted back,“Are you ready for your orders?”“Yes, Sir”“Hope you behave well, today” replied the Station Master.“Will do, Sir” winked Manu, with a naughty smile.“Let us see,” said the Station Master as he poured over his order sheet, “haul thecarriages G-O-O-D to the city.”

Manu saluted him and went to fetch the carriages. But, instead of the assigned loadhe hitched the carriages B-A-D and started hauling it to the big city. No wonderthey call him, Manu, the naughty little engine.

Manu was on to his usual self, misbehaving all the way. He put a wheel out of thetracks and made a screeching, annoying sound for the passengers in the station ashe passed one. Never stopped for inspection, and never at the right spot for the oilerto grease his wheels. Cared little for the instructions of the semaphores on the way.And as a result bumped the trains in front, and laughed as their cargo was strewnon either side of the tracks, much to the annoyance of the engine hauling it.

Phew! what bad behaviour. But, this is not all,Never hauls to the right destination, goods intended for Gauhauti ends up inChennai, and all other places he fancies. Never toots when approaching a rail roadcrossing, or when happy. And also creeps silently when cattle are grassing near thetracks and lets out a loud toot, frightening the poor creature.

Manu, the naughty little engine; the name says it all.As he rolled happily, oblivious to the suffering of others and focusing only on hispleasures, he soon found himself in a strange place,“Where is this?" he wondered, “Who cares” he rolled along.Soon he came to a stop sign and did not obey it as well. But tohis horror he could see that there was no track ahead. It was adead end. He applied his brakes hard,“Phew! he heaved a heavy sigh of relief.“I should have listened to the stop sign,” he lamented and triedto reverse his engine. But his front wheels did not move. Thatwas when he noticed they were stuck on the ground; he had notstopped right on the edge as he thought.

Manu heaved hard, huffed and puffed, but the wheels did not budge one bit. Hestruggled hard, harder than ever. But the more he tried, more the wheels got deeperinto the ground.“With all my might” he spoke to himself, to lift his spirits up; but just about then,he used his last bit of steam in his boiler and had no water or coal to make more.

Manu wished that he had stopped regularly to refuel, as the other engines. But itwas too late, with no steam he could hardly move, let alone pull his stuck wheelsfrom the ground. He watched as the Sun set and in the dark cold night, thoughtabout the comfort of the round house in Tiny Town Station.

A swoosh sound very close, broke his thoughts about home, and was startled bythe mysterious call of an owl. He shivered in fright,“Somebody help me” his plea was barely audible. And soon, helpless in a strangeplace, out in the cold and tired from exhaustion, Manu fell asleep.

For two helpless days and two frightful nights, Manu the naughty little engine,was stuck.

On the third day, after all his hopes had gone, he heard a faint sound. It was notthe thadak-thadak sound of a train. But surely a train. As he peered into thedistance, he saw first a faint silhouette of an engine and as it drew nearer, hisheart jumped in joy.“At-last, help,” thought Manu.But something was not right about this engine, it did not roll on the trackssmoothly, but limped oddly as it moved.

“Hi, mate, will you help me?” requested Manu.“I will, if I can” replied back the strange engine.“I am stuck and I have no steam in my boiler, and neither coal nor water tomake more” Manu explained his sad state, “will you please pull me out and takeme to the nearest station?”“Yes, I would,” replied the engine, “we could try. But as you can see my wheelsare chipped at the edges and there are cracks in them. So I amafraid that any more strain might crumble them to pieces.”“But how did this happen?” enquired Manu.

“Some engine failed to read a semaphore and bumped mytrain hard from behind. As a result my wheels chipped andcracked from that incident. Since I had an important load todeliver, I did not stop for repairs. On my return the wheels

chipped and cracked even more and my going got slower. I could not bear to seeother trains getting delayed because of me, so I switched to this track from themain line and am slowly limping my way back for repairs.”

“What a noble engine” thought Manu and felt ashamed for his past behaviour.“I am he, that caused you all this trouble,” admitted Manu, “And I am terriblysorry”.There was a long silence.

“It’s o.k.,” answered the engine smiling, “ I don’t see evil in you, just a littlemischievous. As, only those who are good at heart own up to their mistakes.”“You forgive me”“Get ready, buddy, we are out of here”, saying this the engine hitched into thecoupling of the stuck train, and pulled hard, Manu’s front wheels slowly movedback into the tracks, and slowly,slowly,slowly they rolled to the nearest station.

Manu, replenished with coal and water, and with fire burning in his boiler, tootedhappily as the steam bubbled up; waved goodbye and wished a speedy recoveryfor the noble engine.

As he picked up speed he thought to himself, “ How wonderful it is to toot whenhappy”. And all along the way back he behaved as any good engine should; andvowed never to go on the wrong track again.

Pretty soon Tiny Town Station could be seen in the distance, and Manu tooted allthe way into town.

THE END