sometimes from dusk till dawn again. She had been his life's companion
while on the road, who now, "like some familiar face at parting, gained
a graver grace."

Presently the lamp-lighters came and began lighting the oil lamps that
stood in brackets along the wall; but before their gleam reached his
face the old engineer slid down and hurried away home with never a
backward glance.

* * * * *

That night when Mrs. Hautman had passed the popcorn and red apples, and
they had all eaten and the men had lighted cigars, the engineer's wife
brought a worn Bible out and drew a chair near the master-mechanic. The
"old man," as he was called, looked at the book, then at the woman, who
held it open on her lap.

"Do you believe this book?" she asked earnestly.

"Absolutely," he answered.

"All that is written here?"

"All," said the man.

Then she turned to the fly-leaf and read the record of Henry's
birth,--the day, the month, and the year.

Henry came and looked at the book and the faded handwriting, trying to
remember; but it was too far away.

The old Bible had been discovered that day deep down in a trunk of old
trinkets that had been sent to Henry when his mother died, years ago.

The old engineer took the book and held it on his knees, turned its limp
leaves, and dropped upon them the tribute of a strong man's tear.

The "old man" called for the letter he had written, erased the date, set
it forward four years, and handed it back to Henry.

"Here, Hank," said he, "here's a Christmas gift for you."

So when the Wildwood Limited was limbered up that Christmas morning,
Henry leaned from the window, leaned back, tugged at the throttle again,
smiled over at the fireman, and said, "Now, Billy, watch her swallow
that cold, stiff steel at about a mile a minute."

BOOKS BY CY WARMAN

SHORT RAILS

12mo. $1.25

* * * * *

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS

N.Y. TIMES REVIEW.

It is good for the soul that we should look into other worlds than our
own, and Mr. Warman knows how to put us beside fireman and engineer and
how to make us feel the poetry as well as the power of the tireless
giants that fulfil for us moderns the ancient dream of the
fire-breathing brazen bulls yoked for the service of man.

THE OUTLOOK.

A dozen or more spirited tales, tersely told, and with that surety of
touch which comes only from intimate knowledge.... The romance, dan