rip the
hand-hold, there is a jerk on my arms that slightly pivots my body,
and my feet land on the steps with sharp violence.

I sit down, feeling very proud of myself. In all my hoboing it is the
best bit of train-jumping I have done. I know that late at night one
is always good for several stations on the last platform, but I do not
care to trust myself at the rear of the train. At the first stop I run
forward on the off-side of the train, pass the Pullmans, and duck
under and take a rod under a day-coach. At the next stop I run forward
again and take another rod.

I am now comparatively safe. The shacks think I am ditched. But the
long day and the strenuous night are beginning to tell on me. Also, it
is not so windy nor cold underneath, and I begin to doze. This will
never do. Sleep on the rods spells death, so I crawl out at a station
and go forward to the second blind. Here I can lie down and sleep; and
here I do sleep--how long I do not know--for I am awakened by a
lantern thrust into my face. The two shacks are staring at me. I
scramble up on the defensive, wondering as to which one is going to
make the first "pass" at me. But slugging is far from their minds.

"I thought you was ditched," says the shack who had held me by the
collar.

"If you hadn't let go of me when you did, you'd have been ditched
along with me," I answer.

"How's that?" he asks.

"I'd have gone into a clinch with you, that's all," is my reply.

They hold a consultation, and their verdict is summed up in:--

"Well, I guess you can ride, Bo. There's no use trying to keep you
off."

And they go away and leave me in peace to the end of their division.

I have given the foregoing as a sample of what "holding her down"
means. Of course, I have selected a fortunate night out of my
experiences, and said nothing of the nights--and many of them--when I
was tripped up by accident and ditched.

In conclusion, I want to tell of what happened when I reached the end
of the division. On single-track, transcontinental lines, the freight
trains wait at the divisions and follow out after the passenger
trains. When the division was reached, I left my train, and looked for
the freight that would pull out behind it. I found the freight, made
up on a side-track and waiting. I climbed into a box-car half full of
coal and lay down. In no time I was asleep.

I was awakened by the sliding open of the door. Day was just dawning,
cold and gray, and the f