Yard, one
of its great switching centers. It was to be an important affair,
according to him, sixty by two hundred feet in breadth and length, of
brick and stone, and was to be built under a time limit of three months,
an arrangement by which the company hoped to find out how satisfactorily
it could do work for itself rather than by outside contract, which it
was always hoping to avoid. From his manner and conversation, I judged
that Rourke was eager to get this job, for he had been a contractor of
some ability in his day before he ever went to work for the company, and
felt, I am sure, that fate had done him an injustice in not allowing him
to remain one. In addition, he felt a little above the odds and ends of
masonry that he was now called on to do, where formerly he had done so
much more important work. He was eager to be a real foreman once more, a
big one, and to show the company that he could erect this building and
thus make a little place for himself in the latter's good graces,
although to what end I could not quite make out. He would never have
made a suitable general foreman. At the same time, he was a little
afraid of the clerical details, those terrible nightmares of reports,
o.k.s and the like.

"How arre ye feelin', Teddy, b'y?" he often inquired of me during this
period, with a greater show of interest in my troublesome health than
ever before. I talked of leaving, I suppose, from time to time because
sheer financial necessity was about to compel it.

"Fine, Rourke," I would say, "never better. I'm feeling better every
day."

"That's good. Ye're the right man in the right place now. If ye was to
sthay a year er two at this work it would be the makin' av ye. Ye're too
thin. Ye need more chist," and he would tap my bony chest in a kindly
manner. "I niver have a sick day, meself."

"That's right, Rourke," I replied pleasantly, feeling keenly the need of
staying by so wonderful a lamp of health. "I intend to stick at it as
long as I can."

"Ye ought to; it'll do ye good. If we get the new buildin' to build,
it'll be better yet for ye. Ye'll have plenty to do there to relave yer
mind."

"Relieve, indeed!" I thought, but I did not say so. On the contrary I
felt so much sympathy for this lusty Irishman and his reasonable
ambitions that I desired to help him, and urged him to get it. I
suggested indirectly that I would see him through, which touched him
greatly. He was a grateful creature in his way, bu