n operator
talk to me like that before. I must certainly insist that you dismiss
him at once. He and I can't work on the same road."

"Unfortunately, Burke," said I, "the State has a claim on his services
for two years yet, and I am afraid they won't waive it."

At this it dawned upon Burke, who and what the man really was; but I
cannot say that his humor was improved at once by the discovery.

One morning shortly after this I was sitting in my office making up an
annual train report, and was cussing out anything and everybody, because
this train report is one of the worst things in the whole business. It
was figures till you couldn't rest, and I had already been working at it
for three days, and my head was in a perfect whirl. That morning one of
our call boys had turned up missing and that fact also irritated me. It
would seem that a call boy was a pretty insignificant chap in a big
railroad, but such is not the case. In a perfect system every employee
is like a cog in a big wheel, and as soon as one cog is broken there is
a jar in the otherwise smooth symmetrical movement of the machine. The
call boy is quite an important personage, because, upon him depends the
prompt calling of the various crews in time to take out their trains. He
must keep a keen watch on the call board for the marking up of trains;
he must know who is the first to go out, and he must know the dwelling
place of every engineer, fireman, conductor and brakeman in the city. On
a big division like ours, this, in itself, was not a small job. On some
roads men are employed for this work, but I had always been partial to
the boys, and kept four of them, two on days and two on nights. When my
day boy left, I promoted a night boy to the second day job, and was
cudgeling my brain for a good chap to go on nights. In a little while I
heard a sharp rap on the office door, and in response to my "come in,"
uttered in a tone that was anything but pleasant, a sturdy looking
little chap about fourteen years old stood before me. He had a shock of
jet black hair, tumbled all over his head, a pair of bright eyes, round
full face, not over clean, strong limbs and a well knit body. His
clothes hung on him like gunny sacks, and the crudity of the many
various patches indicated that they had not been put on by woman's deft
fingers. He didn't wait for me to speak, but blurted out:

"Say, mister, I have just heard tell as how you wants a call boy. Do
you?"

He took my