The Boss of Little Arcady

Sabbath calm was riven by shouts that led me to the back of the house. In the yard next to Solon's, Tobin Crowder, of Crowder & Fancett, Lumber, Coal and Building Supplies, had left a ma

nto a splendid express train. The train now sped across country at such terrific speed that the small Sullivan at the throttle,

of the wagon-box, being thrown from side to side with fine artistry by the train's jolting. He arrogantly demanded tickets from passengers supposedly both to relinquish these. And in his wake went the official most

cting into space, she was the only passenger on this train-and she, for whose sole behoof the ponderous machinery was operated, in whose ex

inction of train-boy, conductor, engineer, brakeman, or fireman, in the order named, had been forced into the only degrading post in the game-a mere passenger without voic

, much embarrassed, though the brakeman, with artistic relish, made a vast

f on the foot that had no

she could be engineer after

of benevolence that h

an' they wouldn't stop the train there 'cause they said it w

he crafty Sullivan at the throttle, "but

an' they wouldn't let me, an' I said, 'Secon' to be engineer,' an' they

namesake, rendered a little sullen

passenger, "and we'll do something

en though the first Sullivan tooted a throaty whistle and the second rattled his brake machinery in warning. I helped h

worst, seco

est of all

, and the mechanics and officials, robbed

ds!" exclaimed my woman c

ngly at the viole

train-boy deserted his post

he exclaimed bi

ister. "Look out, Uncle Maje,

can't have a train without any passenger-it's silly.

ake to roll under his tongue the formidable and satisfying expletive, "John B. Gough!" But I felt that the line must be drawn at Gamboge. Terrapin-buzzards was bad enough, though it was true that this

u ashamed to use such language-befor

er sank beneath her true

orse than

t to chill the pride that shone in her

ut'?" I ask

swered, somewhat abashed

red her brother. Following a device familiar t

Mrs. Sullivan sometimes when she makes me

hat's enough of such talk.

Crackers!'" he observed ten

a great while, on week-days, if they never said any other baddixes; but it's ju

e reminded m

nd saying

ter than ever. The toots of the Sullivan-throated whistle were louder and more frequent, and the voice of the largest could be plainly heard. He had combined the two offices of train-boy and conductor. We heard him al

ain. Probably they would never come back to this town, but sleep on their big engine every night; and every day, from the toothsome dainties of the train-boy Sullivan's basket, they would "eat all they could hold." The elder Sullivan, aged eight, he of the artistic temperament, here soared dizzily into the farthest ether of romance. He had his uniform at home, at that very moment, and a cap with "gold reading" on it-it read "Conductor" on one

d man" could by any chance be found "around here." They named and rejected several possible candidates-other boys that we

out-"I'll be the other brakeman!" At once they would jeer coarsely, slapping one another's backs and affecting the utmost merriment that this one of us should have been equal

e pretend to a yawning sort of interest in a book carelessly picked up. The Sullivans had been foiled

ildren. At least she was kind to them and kept them plump. That she remained dismal under circumstances that seemed to me not to warrant it was a detail of minor consequence. Terry Sullivan had been no good husband to her. Beating her and the lesser Sullivans had been his ser

for the lost lover in him. Through the night her cry had been, "Ah, Terry, Terr

own play-world. She was dressed now in a limp black of many rusty ruffles that sagged close to her and glistened in spots through its rust. Both th

fed the conspiring lesser Sullivans into a decorous line behind her and marched them off to church. There, I knew, she would give from her poor wage tha

s offering to the woman child, and in the dusk of that joyous day my namesake had craved of its proud mother the boon of holding it a little while. Relinquished trustingly to him, he had sat with it by a cheerful fire-without evil intent, I do truly believe. Surely it was by chance that he found its waxen face softening under the stove's glow-and has H

urdered. The criminal had never been able to advance the shadow of a reason or excuse for his mad act. He seemed to be

promptly divested it of all its splendid garments, as a precaution against further vandal

" I said. "That's not quite the right thing,

my r?le as guest. At our parties Irene was no longer Irene, but "Mrs. Judge Ro

"I am going to make her some clothe

awkward guest, she pressed upon me another cup of the custard coffee, and tactfully inquired of the suppo

course, which, I was charmed to learn, would be lemon soup and frosted cake. Mrs. Sullivan's response, though audible only

Then, with dignity, "Well, if you don't hurry, I'll h

ch our imaginations afforded. When we had eaten to repletion, of and from the checkers which were our plates and food as well, Mrs. Ju

tea-parties, and, sitting at a little distance from us, he had been aimin

the house oftener than I could help, for always in those rooms I felt a troubled presence, a homesick thing that pushed two frai

on a wonderful canvas of blue,-a day when I longed for the ho

r the velvet hillsides tufted with green and yellow and brown, nor eke the quiet lane running betwe

y, she was herself Mrs. Judge Robinson now. I understood that she was decked in a gown of royal purple, whose sweeping velvet train g

your children got the scarlet fever? That's too bad. So has mi

say, "Now do come over som

namesake were various, and s

ere the objects of his worship. He could not have told me this, but I knew that in his mind these were compounds of unparalleled richness, potent with Heaven knows w

From the cab of its inspiring locomotive one of fortune's favorites rang a priceless gold bell with an air of indifference which we believed in our hearts was assumed to impress

s city; and there was a car of squealing pigs, who seemed not to want to ride on a real train; and some cars of sheep that were stupidly indifferent about the whole thing. At the last was a palatial "caboose", and toward this, over the tops of the moving cars, a happy brakeman made his exci

portent in his nostrils, that throughout his life it would bring up the wander-bidding in him-always a strange sweet passion of starting. Even now the journey-wonder was in his eyes. I knew that he saw himself jau

He looked up at me, a little shyly, d

row up, I'm going of

t," I sai

t be jus

l the world. I hoped for it myse

quick look

t they l

nly I knew I wouldn't be-anything to

nd," he suggeste

,-off the

s got two off his left han

s to a by-path that followed the river bank up to the bridge, running far ahead of us

OR AN UP-TO-DAT

of his way to worship at this wayside shrine. Again he was dreaming. In the days of his opulence he saw hims

en there?" I aske

ream, he'll give you a whole ten-cent dish just for turning the freezer; but Pop won't let me stay out of sc

l funny sign up o

I entered Budd's on the morrow, purposely to read it, and I knew that my namesake had

ST IS

ST IS

NO BUST,

t, but I dare say it preserved a gorg

s by Mrs. Sullivan. And here I reflected that good days often end b

f it?" was his first outbreak. And at last he felt obliged t

f I have to whip, it will hur

later I heard him asserting, between catches o

n up-to-date dinner, you bet-(a snuffle)-I'll probably go ther

him as bes

to bed with the distressing Irene, to whom she would show

op-once said he knew "that outside the

the hall, past the poor striving hands, to sit with Solon Denney and