and so are the tracks.

All this Rodman discovered afterwards; but he did not know it then, and so
he was only bewildered by the switchman's questions. For a few minutes he
stood irresolute, though keeping a sharp lookout for the hurrying switch
engines, and moving cars that, singly or in trains, were flying in all
directions about him, apparently without any reason or method. Finally he
decided to follow out his original plan of going to the superintendent's
office and asking for employment. By inquiry he found that it was located
over the passenger station, nearly a mile away from where he stood. When
he reached the station, and inquired for the person of whom he was in
search, he was laughed at, and told that the "super" never came to his
office at that time of day, nor until two or three hours later. So,
feeling faint for want of breakfast, as well as tired and somewhat
discouraged, the boy sat down in the great bustling waiting-room of the
station.

At one side of the room was a lunch-counter, from which the odor of
newly-made coffee was wafted to him in the most tantalizing manner. What
wouldn't he give for a cup at that moment? But there was no use in
thinking of such things; and so he resolutely turned his back upon
the steaming urn, and the tempting pile of eatables by which it was
surrounded. In watching the endless streams of passengers steadily ebbing
and flowing past him, he almost forgot the emptiness of his stomach. Where
could they all be going to, or coming from? Did people always travel in
such overwhelming numbers, that it seemed as though the whole world were
on the move, or was this some special occasion? He thought the latter must
be the case, and wondered what the occasion was. Then there were the
babies and children! How they swarmed about him! He soon found that he
could keep pretty busy, and win many a grateful smile from anxious
mothers, by capturing and picking up little toddlers who would persist in
running about and falling down right in the way of hurrying passengers.
He also kept an eye on the old ladies, who were so flustered and
bewildered, and asked such meaningless questions of everybody, that he
wondered how they were ever to reach their destinations in safety.

One of these deposited a perfect avalanche of little bags, packages, and
umbrellas on the seat beside him. Several of them fell to the floor, and
Rod was good-naturedly picking them up when he was startled by the sound
of a