rk and stood with strained attention to see what had happened; then the you
ed, "you-you
block coming. It was lucky I
t the splintered board where he had been standing. "I should say so! Imagine wha
e could tell certainly, but it was pretty generally agreed that the sudden rebound from the strain, as the boiler fe
more interested in each other than in anything else. A sudden comradeship, born in the first glance they exchang
ng, his hand outstretched; "my first na
responded Allan, clasping the
e Allan West! Well, I've always wanted to know you, b
" repeated Allan in bewild
heard of your exploits? And to hero-worship there is now added a lively sense of gratitude, since you arrived just in ti
answered Allan; "just b
ke the liberty of paying you a call before
r you," answered Allan, heartily. "But I've got some letters
re might be a difference of opinion about that. But there he comes now," and he nodded toward the ta
the mishap. Allan did not wait to hear it, but, conscious that the errand was taking longer than it should, hurried on to deliver
him with a rapidity born of long experience. Allan never ceased to be astonished at the vast quantity of mail which poured in and out of the office-letters upon every conceivable subject con
25
e to the baggage-master other packets addressed to employees at various points along the road. The road took care of its own mail in th
, rose the clatter of the telegraph instruments. The trainmaster had one at his elbow, the chief-dispatcher another, and in the dispat
, after all, the pile of letters, huge as it was, represented only a small portion of the road's business-that by far the greater part of it was transacted by wir
where he had lived ever since he had come to Wadsworth, a year before, in search of work. Big-hearted Jack Welsh had not only given him work, but had offered him a home-and a r
at the gate, and she escorted him p
your new job?" Mary asked,
ed, and described in detai
temptuously when
anybody could do that! A boy loike you deserves some
it gives me. I'm at the bottom of the ladder, it's true, just as John Marney said; b
from acros
greed. "And you'll gi
the Public Library, where he asked for a book on telegraphy. He was just leaving the building with the coveted
latter, "this is lu
arting for hom
wheeling into step beside him and loc
an. "You know I'm
That's a great load off my mind. What's
graphy," and Allan s
to st
to amount to anything in the offices, one has
rk learning it from a book. It'll be a good deal like learning to
course I'l
s the operator at Belpre now, and hasn't any more use for them than a dog has for two tails. He'll be glad to let us have them-glad to know that his lazy brother's impro
miringly; "if we can only carry it ou
ink we can manage it," said Jim.
me; I live just over yonder," and a moment lat
oon be dark and we'll have
minute," said Al
century before by some wealthy ? 29 ? farmer who had never heard of a railroad, and never dreamed that his property would one day be wanted for a right of way. But the day came when the railroad's surveyors ran their line of stakes out from the town, along the river-bank, and up to the very door of the house itself. Condemnation proceedings were begun, the ra
and mighty bridges-it seemed as old, as venerable, as the rugged hills which frowned down upon the valley; it seemed that it must have been there from the dawn of time, that it was the product of a force greater than any now known to man. And yet, really, it had been in existence scarce half a century. Many men were
he Lakes to the Gulf. It had brought San Francisco as near Boston as was Philadelphia in the days of the post rider. The four days' stage journey from New York to Boston it covered in four hours. It had bound together into
h the gathering darkness, along the way that they had c
well, and I believe that I can get him to let us string our wire on the com
llan, "it will be easy enough.
positiveness than he really felt. "I'll see Mickey in the morni
nd that I'm not doing anything," said Allan
"Won't you come in and see my mo
said Allan. "Do yo
she asked me to bring you
Allan, looking a
on," and he opened the door
ooked up at the sound of their entrance, and as the beams of the lamp fell upon her face, Allan saw how it lighted with love and happiness.
as saying, "thi
etting her ? 32 ? sewing fall unheeded to
a voice soft and sweet and gentle. "Th
lan, turning crimson. "You see
her would think it nothing if
ps trembled. And the woman before him, looking
found himself clasped close ag