ded as they approached the
station! How lustily Rod pulled at the bell-rope, that the glad tidings
of number 10's glorious run might the sooner be guessed by the anxious
watchers, who awaited their coming. What an eager throng gathered round
the old locomotive as it rolled proudly up to the station. It almost
seemed conscious of having performed a splendid deed. Long afterwards, in
cab and caboose, or wherever the men of the N. Y. and W. road gathered,
all fast time was compared with the great run made by number 10 on that
memorable night.

The storm had passed and the moon was shining when the station was
reached. Already men were at work repairing the telegraph line, and an
hour later a bridge gang, with a train of timber-laden flats, was on its
way to the Minkskill bridge. Number 10 drew this train, and Rod was
delighted to have this opportunity to learn something of bridge building.
He was glad, too, to escape from the praises of the railroad men; for
Truman Stump insisted on telling the story of his young fireman's brave
deed to each new crew as it reached the station, and they were equally
determined to make a hero of him.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

INDEPENDENCE OR PRIDE

Smiler, the railroad dog, appeared on the scene with the bridge gang,
though no one knew where he came from; and, quickly discovering Rod, he
followed him into the cab of locomotive number 10. Here he took possession
of the cushion on the fireman's side of the cab, and sat on it with a wise
expression on his honest face, that said as plainly as words: "This is an
important bit of work, and it is clearly my duty to superintend it." Rod
was delighted to have this opportunity of introducing the dear dog to
Eltje, and they became friends immediately. As for the President, Smiler
not only condescended to recognize him, but treated him with quite as much
cordiality as though he had been a fireman or a brakeman on a through
freight.

Rod got a few hours' sleep that night after all, and in the morning he and
Engineman Stump accepted an invitation to take breakfast with President
Vanderveer, his daughter, and Smiler, in the President's private car. This
car had just returned from the extended western trip on which it had
started two months before, when Rod was seeking employment on the road. As
neither Eltje nor her father had heard a word concerning him in all that
time, they now plied him with questions. When he finished his story Eltje
exclaimed: