we have a hard run for a
meeting-point there's always the head brakeman, and they can usually
fire as well as a fireman."

"I will consent only to please him," she said, "and because I should
like to have him with you."

He thanked her for the compliment, and took up his hat to go.

"And how often shall I see you now? I mean--how soon--when will Bennie
be home again?"

They were standing close together in the little hall, and when he looked
deep into her eyes, she became confused and blushed like a school-girl.

"Well, to be honest, we never know on a run of this sort when we may get
back to town. It may be a day, a week, or a month," said Moran. "But
I'll promise you that I will not keep him away longer than is necessary.
We don't work Sundays, of course, and I'll try and dead-head him in
Saturday nights, and you can send him back on the fast freight Sunday
evenings. The watchman can fire the engine in an emergency, you know."

"But the watchman couldn't run her in an emergency?" queried the little
woman.

"I'm afraid not," said Moran, catching the drift of her mind, and
feeling proud of the compliment concealed in the harmless query. "But I
shall enjoy having him come to you once a week to show you that I have
not forgotten my promise."

"And I shall know," she answered, putting up a warning finger, "by his
actions whether you have been good to him."

"And by the same token I can tell whether you are happy," rejoined the
engineer, taking both her hands in his to say good-bye.

Moran went directly to the round-house and spoke to the foreman, and
when Bennie came home that evening he threw himself upon his mother's
neck and wept for very joy. His mother wept, too, for it means something
to a mother to have her only boy go out to begin life on the rail. After
supper they all went over to the little general store, where she had
once been refused credit--where she had spent their last dollar for
Christmas presents for little Bennie and his father, chiefly his
father--and bought two suits of bright blue overclothes for the new
fireman. "Mother, I once heard the foreman say that Dan Moran had been
like a father to papa," said Bennie that evening. "Guess he'll start in
being a father to me now, eh! mother?"

Mrs. Cowels smiled and kissed him, and then she cried a little, but only
a little, for in spite of all her troubles she felt almost happy that
night.

It was nearly midnight when Bennie finished trying on h