he ocean wave
beaten a hundred ways. When do you suppose they'll pick us up?"

"Tuesday morning is the first freight," I told him. "There's a passenger
train to-morrow night, but it doesn't stop here, see?" And I showed him
the time table.

"We should worry," I said; "we've got nearly twenty dollars from the
movie show. I've got Mr. Temple's fifty sealed up in an envelope; we're
supposed to forget that. Guess I might as well keep the time table,
hey?"

"I bet it's fun living on the railroad," Wig said.

"I'd like to be a brakeman," Pee-wee shouted.

"That would be a good job for you," I told him; "you make so many
breaks. I think you ought to be cook on a dining car."

"It's dangerous working on a railroad," Connie said; "lots of men lose
their lives; sometimes they lose their hands or their fingers, too."

"If you lose your life, what's the use of keeping your fingers?" Westy
said.

"Sure," I said; "they would only be a nuisance."

"But I mean it," Connie said; "I heard that. If a man works on a
railroad long enough he gets killed."

"If he lives long enough he dies," I said.

"There's a large percentage of mortality," Connie said.

"A large which of whatness?" I asked him; "stand up and speak clearly so
all the class can hear."

"All right," he said; "it's true."

"It's all right if you have your private car," Wig said. "All you have
to do is to sit back and take it easy."

"Sure, if you're in your private car it's all right," Connie said.

By that time we had come to the car and Pee-wee was the first one to go
up the steps. Now I don't know whether maybe it was because we had been
talking about railroading that Pee-wee thought he'd play brakeman, but
anyway, like the crazy kid he was, as soon as he was on the platform he
grabbed the wheel that's connected with the brake and turned it out of
its ratchet and twirled it around, shouting, "All aboard! All aboard!"

"Let that thing alone," I said, as the rest of us passed into the car.

"There isn't any spark in it," he shouted. Crinkums, that kid is crazy.

He followed us into the car and we all sprawled down into seats, because
we were good and tired.

Westy said, "Oh, boy, it's good to sit down. I wonder if our friend Eb
Brewster was here. Next stop is the Land of Nod. I don't want any
supper."

"_G--o--o--d night!_" Connie said; "I'll be hanged if we're not moving."

Just then, I looked out and saw the closed up store sneaking slowly
away.