The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-05-01
HESTER
I'kR |

The traishttorwardcet way 1 can start of with this story perhaps. i, by saving that l answer to the name of Billy Pickles and, furthermore bv mention ing in what state of life it has pleased heaven te give me that name at the hands ot them as stood sponsor to me
 For being clad ill my Sunday best. without a trace or epcrk of workadav about me. there nothing hung out hy way "f signal to show that l follow the calling ot all cngnc-drivcr-h by which don mean that l have anything tu do with the traffic on any railway, and ~o won mi>lead Neu Nv husa,.>, i~ on public works, and has been eyer since were about the height of your table. at which time mv job wash enginc-driv. ing a, you may we'll suppose. but sum mat as required Il good bit less gunnp- ton. dare say might have got my stliiieat> and bc driving an express now if q >o wished. hut every man ha, his hkin amt mine k for tipping.cngine on hig contract. IL seems more nat ral and iovi;l to be running back and for Ard among a lot of busy naVvic> than to b" tearing along mile after mile of rail r"ad, with no one tn speak to but your ~tokcr amt Nom heart tluttcrng with tn" responsibility of your cargo of hu. man soul, and bodies
 W hat m how going to speak of hap. pencd morr wears ago than 1 like to count while Mr>,rs Rulling,tork A Dalla>t were making the Stalchurv. "archrstrr and Wrsthampton railway Dear heart when think of the times that has gone hy since then. it seem, to me am not speaking of myself at all hut of some other man
 hadn't rig to rnaiuc-driyinu then. was what k called ropcrunncr on as neat little tippins-ensine as you need 10 see roperunncr on public works i> pretty much the same as a hrakcsman on good>-traln-that iS he has to see to coupling and meoupling the wagons that run with his engine. and to drive tn" engine al a pinch Why he should h" called ropcrunncr l can't explain. n" doubt there i> d rcason-as there k for most things only 1t aint easy to get at
 here Was some very pretty work to [" be done along that thirty mile of line sp"k" of just now and our little engine -l mind she was called the Lady Cornc- wall Was at work in the very finest bit ot all where the railroad coming out beyond CarChcStcr, was to pass forahout quarter of mile between the river and a mighty shoulder of chalkv down called St Martins Hill You can un- drrstand that next to the river would have to be an embankmcnt. while the hillside would be turned into d normous cutting Perhaps you've seen the place. and noticed how sheer and high and dazzling white it is-2OU feet of slippery. barren chalk, with a thin layer of black earth and fringe of grass at the top, and Ii you have an eye for such matters you will have said to yourself Good Lord. How did the poor fellows who made that stick on to their work?" es, Il $ one of the finest excavations ever saw; nevertheless. l remember il with neither pride nor pleasure, for the very name of CarchcStcr cutting brings to my mind the saddest and darkest time l ever lived through
 Looking at me now, after hard work and tune, and cares have wrought their Will ana skill on me, you may think am bragSlng bit when l say that the uayS when l was ropcrunner on the
 Lady Cornewall l was very gpod-
 
 looking young fellow, and that if there'd q been no other way for me to find it out. should have guessed it by the way the girls had of making much of me. How ever, up the day when my story begins. kept my heart free and gone no further with any young woman of my acquaintance than friendly joke
 It was one glorious morning late in April. If ever you've been on the South Downs, you'll know how glorious it was without my poor way of telling you The air came warm and soft against your face, full of sweetness from the flowers that covered the broad water meadows on the other side of the river. The alders and willows that bent over the water were covered with swelling buds; the swallows skinned and dip ped, flashing like so many shooting stars, and the sun shone down as if every