Daily Kennebec journal., 1877-01-11

| stopped at the next station he was goin'
| round oiin' his ingine and the little tyke
taggin' after, hodin' on to his coat tail
and getting hisself all covered with oil
and grease, jest ike a reg'ar engineer
and there was one of the station men, as
didn't like Bill, nOhow. and he ses. ses he,
"Hullo. Bill is that lctt-hander OF
your'n p
They say Bill Just turned a,hy. He sets
down his can and reaches for that teller-
just one-Squarc in the jugglar. And he
did'n git ont o bed for ten DAYS. One day
there come down from New York u rock
ing horse, aud Mary found itat the water
tank with n piece of paper tied TO the
bride, n it said like this: "ll Bill Walk
er could ever wish for a baby OF his own,
it would be little Charley" That rocking
horse cost Bill whole months wages.
One of the first things Charley learned
to say. when he was beginnin' 10 talk.
was this You see, the men on the road
used 10 call one another "Pard"-short
for "pardner.n Charley, he caught it,
and he always called me 'Pard.' don't
think be ever called me father or papa,
like other children do; but it was always
"Pard You and me is pards, ism I
we ~ he used to say. An that's what
we alters called one another, and he went
bv the name of Charley Latham's pard
all over The road.
As was telliu', Sundays laid off; N
in the mornin', after breakfast, Mary
would fill up basket with some bread an
butter an meat an things, and we three
would 90 off into the mountains and stay
all day. We used to do this every Sun
day, aud SO Charley got to calm ii his
pard's day. You see, he got a notion it
was the best day in the week COS | was
always home with i'm. didn't never go
to church much-it was long ways; and
then thought Charley would get as much
religion by going round in the woods, and
among the mountains, where the trees
and leaves were so beautiful, and the
rocks SO grand. as any other way. II
they don't tell Us that the Creator. who
made them all, is powerful and good, too,
there AIM any preacher can do it,
Iou went up the top oi Plke's Peak the
other day. I've been there, too; n I'd
like to know if a chap can 90 up there,
among those awful precipices and gorges.
ard look over the country for one hundred
miles. and see the mountains around, and
the plains way off in front, that don't seem
| to have no end, an then look at hisself an
say whether he does really amount to a
row of pins. You see, / never was any
Christian, an never give Charley no such
trainin' an sometimes | think mebbe
do quite right by him. But, Lord love you,
stranger, when he went among the angels,
I'm jest certain there wasn't none of them
had cleaner soul than what he had.
There was a place. about three-quarters
of mile from our place, where we used
to go good deal Sundays. and Mary
would read the Bible to us and sing. She
was a good singer, Mary was. We
used TO call the place Devils Run >
1t was sort Of a creek, but didn't
have no water in it, 'cept after hard rain
1t came down between two high noun
| tains. where it was as steep as could be.
| When a storm came up I've known it in
| half an hour to have six feet of water in 1t.
| An then it would bring down big trunks
ol trees, and great stones, roaring in that
way you could hear it for miles.
| 1t got its name because it was such al
Internal place. Often I've been woke up
nights bv heavy shower, and I'd hear
| Devils Run bowling as though it would
tear everything to pieces. There couldn't
be no worse place fixed for the road, if they
had hunted the whole country through
than ight there. There was sharp curve
and on the outside OF it was straight up
and-down precipice for hundreds OF feet
so that If a train went off it would bt
smashed into kndlin' wood and ten-penny
nails. Devils Run" went underneath
the track. near the point of the curve
through u barrel culvert, and once there
came on a hard storm, N the tree'
N stone. SO on, checked up the cul
vert, which wasn't large enough, n
the water damned up an rose, until bye
andy the whole embankment gave way
and twenty foot OF the road went rippin
down the mountain. They found out the
break before any accident happened. anc
the culvert was rebuilt, a good deal larger
than before. But that place the whole
road was aleared Of
As | was telln', if 1t hadn't been such
a wicked place Devils Rum was the
| prettiest one on the whole mountain. The
bed of the stream was deep down N full
of ferns and grasses that Mary was alters
gatherin,' and we could set there in the
hottest days, and the sun could never find
his way through the trees overhead.
AS | was telln', Charley was born TO be
an engineer. By the time he had got to be
six years old he knew the name OF nigh all
the parts OF a machine. He'd learned all
the signals that was used on the road. He
knew that red flag or red light meant
danger. That lantern, at night, swung
| backward n forward, slowly. across the
track, would bring a train up, all standin'
All that sort of thing he'd Jest picked up,
hisself. He knew the sound Of every whis
tie and bell on the road, N could lel what
ingine they belonged to. and | believe he
knew the tread OF No. 90, whenever she
went by, whether night or day, No 29-
that was my ingine--l run her about three
years-and there wasn't nothin' in Gods
world | couldn't get out of her when she
was in good humor. We sort O. under.
stood one another, aud she hardly ever
went back on me. Once In while she
did, and then she was nothin' but cuss
Yes he was seven that winter. just
seven years old a few days before Christ
mas. After Charley got II year or two old
l alters made much o! Christmas. Mostly
l contrlved to lay of that day so as to be-
home with my little pard. Some of the
boys was alters ready n willin' to take my
run that day--them as didn't hev no wives
or children, They'd come and say Now