ial on the part of
the industrious couple, and his possible profession was a favorite theme
of family converse.

"For that matter, there's lot o' things a scholard like him ken do,"
rejoined Top, Senior, with affectionate confidence in his heir's talents
and acquirements. "'Tain't like 'twould be with a feller like me whose
arms an' legs is his hull stock in trade. Why, I min' seein' a leetle
rat of a man come on board one time 'scorted by a dozen 'o the biggest
bugs in the city, an' people a-stretchin' their necks out o' j'int to
ketch a look of him. Sech a mealy-faced, weak-lookin' atomy he was! But
millions o' people was a-readin' that very day a big speech he'd made in
Washin'ton, an' he'd saved the country from trouble more 'n once. He
mought 'a' been President ef he had chose to run. That's the good o'
hevin' a tiptop head-piece."

"I've made up my mind!" said Top, Junior, with an air. "I'm goin' to be
a Hero! Like Julius Caesar an' Alexander an' William Tell an' Captain
John Smith, an' other men I've read about. I wish _you_ would be a
Hero, father! It's ever so much nicer than runnin' an engine. Won't
you--please! You are strong enough and good enough for anything, an' you
know a great deal about things!"

The blue eyes were bright and wistful, his hand stole up to the bushy
whiskers, ginger-colored from exposure to the air and boiler-heat.

"_Me_, a hero! Haw! haw!" roared the engineer, letting fall his knife
and fork in his merriment. "_I'd_ cut a figger at the head of an army,
or speakin' in Congress, or a-setten' on a gold throne, wouldn't I? No!
no! my man!" sobering down suddenly, into a sort of sad dignity. "Yer
father ain't got the brains nor the eddication for nothin' of that kind!
All he ken do is to live clean an' honest in the sight o' the Lord, an'
to run his ingine 'cordin' to the best o' his lights."

"The Lord's too reasonable to expect more of you'n to do your duty in
the place where's He's put you," said the wife gently.

"I hope he is, Mother! Ef he looked for more--or for any big thing 's
fur as that goes, the chances are He'd be disapp'inted. I hev plenty o'
time fur thinkin' while we're scootin' 'cross the level country an'
creepin' up steep grades, an' I've worked it out to my own satisfaction
that somethin' else I've got to be thankful fur, is that my way in
life's been marked down so plain. 'Seems if I he'd been sot onto rails
pretty much's She is, an' 's long ez I do my level best