n, a glorious sight, the first train I
had ever waited for. When the conductor saw my queer baggage, he
cried, "Hello! What have we here?"

"Inventions for keeping time, early rising, and so forth. May I take
them into the car with me?"

"You can take them where you like," he replied, "but you had better
give them to the baggage-master. If you take them into the car they
will draw a crowd and might get broken."

So I gave them to the baggage-master and made haste to ask the
conductor whether I might ride on the engine. He good-naturedly said:
"Yes, it's the right place for you. Run ahead, and tell the engineer
what I say." But the engineer bluntly refused to let me on, saying:
"It don't matter what the conductor told you. _I_ say you can't ride
on my engine."

By this time the conductor, standing ready to start his train, was
watching to see what luck I had, and when he saw me returning came
ahead to meet me.

"The engineer won't let me on," I reported.

"Won't he?" said the kind conductor. "Oh! I guess he will. You come
down with me." And so he actually took the time and patience to walk
the length of that long train to get me on to the engine.

"Charlie," said he, addressing the engineer, "don't you ever take a
passenger?"

"Very seldom," he replied.

"Anyhow, I wish you would take this young man on. He has the strangest
machines in the baggage-car I ever saw in my life. I believe he could
make a locomotive. He wants to see the engine running. Let him on."
Then in a low whisper he told me to jump on, which I did gladly, the
engineer offering neither encouragement nor objection.

As soon as the train was started, the engineer asked what the "strange
thing" the conductor spoke of really was.

"Only inventions for keeping time, getting folk up in the morning, and
so forth," I hastily replied, and before he could ask any more
questions I asked permission to go outside of the cab to see the
machinery. This he kindly granted, adding, "Be careful not to fall
off, and when you hear me whistling for a station you come back,
because if it is reported against me to the superintendent that I
allow boys to run all over my engine I might lose my job."

Assuring him that I would come back promptly, I went out and walked
along the foot-board on the side of the boiler, watching the
magnificent machine rushing through the landscapes as if glorying in
its strength like a living creature. While seated on the cow-catcher