d over and over down the embankment. And, starting from the
point of Toddles' departure from the train, the right of way for a
hundred yards was strewn with "the latest magazines" and "new books
just out to-day."

Toddles lay there, a little, curled, huddled heap, motionless in the
darkness. The tail lights of the local disappeared. No one aboard
would miss Toddles until they got into Big Cloud--and found him gone.
Which is Irish for saying that no one would attempt to keep track of a
newsboy's idiosyncrasies on a train; it would be asking too much of any
train crew; and, besides, there was no mention of it in the rules.

It was a long while before Toddles stirred; a very long while before
consciousness crept slowly back to him. Then he moved, tried to get
up--and fell back with a quick, sharp cry of pain. He lay still, then,
for a moment. His ankle hurt him frightfully, and his back, and his
shoulder, too. He put his hand to his face where something seemed to
be trickling warm--and brought it away wet. Toddles, grim little
warrior, tried to think. They hadn't been going very fast when he fell
off. If they had, he would have been killed. As it was, he was hurt,
badly hurt, and his head swam, nauseating him.

Where was he? Was he near any help? He'd have to get help somewhere,
or--or with the cold and--and everything he'd probably die out here
before morning. Toddles shouted out--again and again. Perhaps his
voice was too weak to carry very far; anyway, there was no reply.

He looked up at the top of the embankment, clamped his teeth, and
started to crawl. If he got up there, perhaps he could tell where he
was. It had taken Toddles a matter of seconds to roll down; it took
him ten minutes of untold agony to get up. Then he dashed his hand
across his eyes where the blood was, and cried a little with the surge
of relief. East, down the track, only a few yards away, the green eye
of a switch lamp winked at him.

Where there was a switch lamp there was a siding, and where there was a
siding there was promise of a station. Toddles, with the sudden uplift
upon him, got to his feet and started along the track--two steps--and
went down again. He couldn't walk, the pain was more than he could
bear--his right ankle, his left shoulder, and his back--hopping only
made it worse--it was easier to crawl.

And so Toddles crawled.

It took him a long time even to pass the switch light. The pain made
him weak