him. Then he turned to Mitch and says, "You goin' to Havaner, too?"
Mitch says, "Yes, sir." "One dollar, please," says the conductor. Mitch
didn't have it--he only had 80 cents. So I gave my other dollar to the
conductor, and he climbed into the cupola and stayed a bit and then
climbed down and went away sommers.

Mitch says, "Well, that about cleans us out. We've got just 80 cents now
between us. I thought Willie Wallace was your friend."

"He is," says I, "but I never met this here conductor before."

"It looks like it," says Mitch. "And now who knows what this will do to
us? Suppose we have to pay our fare on the boat? That means we'll have
to lay over long enough in Havaner to earn the money. One thing
sometimes leads to another."

Just then Willie Wallace came through the caboose, and the train
stopped. I looked out and saw we was alongside a corn-crib--nothin'
else; but we began to back on to a switch, and pretty soon stopped. And
now it was so still that you could hear the crickets chirp in the grass.
It was a lonely country here--flat and sandy. Mitch and I got down and
went to the back platform to see what Willie Wallace was doin'. He was
standin' by the switch. And pretty soon the passenger train came
whizzin' by. And what do you suppose? There stood pa on the back
platform of the last car, smokin' a cigar and talkin' to a man.

We backed up and started on. Willie Wallace came into the caboose. Here
we was in a pickle. If I complained to Willie Wallace about the
conductor takin' two dollars for our fare, I was afraid he'd say, "Look
here, what's your pa doin' on that train goin' back to Petersburg? You
ain't goin' to Havaner to meet him--you're runnin' off--that's what you
are. And I'll put you off here and you can walk back, or I'll take you
to Havaner and give you over to the police." So I was afraid and I began
to edge.

Says I: "What time does that train get to Petersburg, Willie?"

"About an hour from here," says he.

"Where does it come from?"

"Peoria."

"Does it come through Havaner?"

"Why, of course it does; why?"

"Because," says I, "I thought I saw a friend of my pa's standin' on the
back platform."

"Who?" says Willie.

"Well, you don't know him," says I. "He's a friend of my pa's."

Willie didn't say nothin'.

Then I says, "Didn't you see a couple of men standin' on the back
platform?"

"No," says Willie. "I can't be watchin' things like that when I'm takin'
care of a swi