us on the train. So I began to play safe.
I told him Mitch and me was goin' to Havaner to see my pa who was there,
and come back with him to-morrow. Then I took out my two dollars and
showed him, and says, "That's for my fare, and Mitch has money, too."
Willie Wallace says: "You don't need no fare--just crawl up in the
cupola of the caboose, and it will be all right. I owe your grandpap a
lot for what he did for me in times past--and I'll pay part of it by
lettin' you ride."

Then Willie walked away to go into the depot; and Mitch says, "Derned if
I'm not proud of you, Skeet. That was a bully whack--and we've struck it
rich. Our luck has turned at last."

We climbed up into the cupola and took seats, swingin' seats they
was--and we could see all over the country--clean down to the woods
where the river was, and over the fields far away. And pretty soon we
was off, goin' like mad.

"What do you think of this?" says I.

"Why, Skeet," says Mitch, "did Tom Sawyer ever have anything like this?
He never did. And come to think of it, was there a railroad in Tom's
town? He never speaks of one. And nobody ever goes anywhere, except to
Coonville, which maybe was as far from Tom's town as Atterberry from
your grandpa's farm. Say, this is wonderful."

[Illustration: Willie Wallace Lets Us Ride]

And Mitch took off his hat and let the wind blow through his sweaty
hair. It was a wonderful day, and here we was, whizzin' right through
the country, lookin' down on the fields, and goin' so fast that
blackbirds flyin' alongside of us got way behind and couldn't keep up.
Then we could whirl around in our chairs and look through the windows of
the cupola all around the country.

We got to Oakford by and by and looked down on the men and boys standing
by the depot, their hands in their pockets, chewin' tobacco, whittlin',
jostlin' each other, laughin' and all that. Then the conductor came out
of the depot with tissue papers in his hand and gave the signal and we
started off. At Kilburn we did some switchin', put on a car with cattle
in it. And here the conductor saw us for the first time.

He started to come up in the cupola and the first thing he says was,
"Fares, please." "How much?" says I. "Where you goin'?" says he. "To
Havaner," I says. "Where did you get on?" "At Atterberry," I says. I
began to look for Willie Wallace, but he warn't anywhere around. Then
the conductor says, "One dollar." I pulled a dollar out and handed it to