The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-14

then go away for the night There are
no hours l simply do what 1 have to
do in my own way and nobody ever both
ers me. Now and then a man comes from
the auditors office, checks me up, looks
HE over, swings into the next train that
passes, and that's all. Here" said the
agent strolling into the freight room; Il
Keep my lamps. Here are my supplies
| OIL and waste to clean the lamps with
Not many roads furnish nice white waste
for common agents.
Who cleans the lamps?"
L do The most important lamps are
the switch lights throughout the yard
usually stroll down among the switches
AFTER local crew has been switching, and
| again just before going home at night.
TO see that the switches are all up and
locked. Man left the switch open before 1
came, put fast freight in on the grain
track, wrecked the engine and burned the
elevator-thats why I'm careful, I pre-
sumo"
"who sweeps out?"
: Il do"
| "Offlce. station and al?"
Everything. I always try to do that
of morning before anybody comes
| around"
And In winter-do you fetch the coal
and empty the ashes?"
| 20, yes. I'm the whole show. This is
/ tHN u hNh udlutS my Ilet2Nt on.
Now all this was not what Laucing Cut
ter, Jr., had figured on. He had dreamed
that he could wear stylish clothes spot
| less linen, and look like a peach all the
time. He had calculated that his prin-
! cipal and most arduous duty would be
waiting for the pay car.
| Now the two girls came skipping by
| from the postofice. The dark one put
| her head in at the open window, and said
/ " A 1Runp Tha
| 81 want" said she
Come on said the fair one, stealing
| glance at the handsome new man over
| the shoulder of her friend.
| The agent went on explaining things to
his successor, and when the girls had
grown weary of teasing him they stroled
out of the little village and down the
dusty lane
Nothing can be more glorious than the
dewy dawn of a springtime morning.
| F'reda johnson was abroad when it broke
! ana now stood under a cherry tree watch
ing the sun. swing up out of the east. An
early robin fluttering above her. shook
| shower of cherry blossoms down over
her head. Some of them lodged and lay
| like snowfakes upon her golden hair. OF
all the fair flowers in natures spring APP
i, parel there was not one fairer than Freda.
| She seemed to harmonic with everything
The pink ribbon at her throat, the pink
| in her cheeks and the pink in the petals
of the cherry blossoms, the golden sun
light on her golden haiF-the blue of her
eyes was the hue of the skies. She was
as fresh as fair and rosy as the ROSY morn
High over her head a lark sang, crcling
soaring, mounting to meet the rising sum-
| and even calling back to the low-b
birds still hiding in the hedges to rise and
wing TO the ethereal fields and view the
wonders of the waking world.
Across the lane now, came the tree-toad
tri.l with which girls call each other Fire.
da, smiling put up her pretty head. and
| from her pink throat there rippled an an
| swerlng call, as clear and musical as the
lark's song. The hedge grew high be-
tween them, but these wingless birds
heard and answered each other, and then
romped back to their respective homes
AT o'clock, in that quiet hour that in
tervenes between breakfast and dinner
on well-regulated farm, they always
went to the postoffice. This had been
| their habit for some time Now it became
a necessity, Every morning they stood
at the little window. and every morning
the new man, who had already learned to
| look for them going and coming, saw them
| creeping UP the platform, the dark one
reading, the fair one listening to whatever
the reader cared to read aloud. He had
seen her shamelessly kiss the agent good
by when the agent went away, and now
he knew that these daily letters came
from the happy lover whose place he had
taken at the station. He could not if he
! would, take the old agents place in the
| heart of the viVaciouS brunette, who in
variably lifted her dark eyes from the let
| ter to shoot a passing glance at the new
man, but he felt that with the love of
the fair one, even this dusty, desolate
VI
ny, would become an Eden But that he
could scarcely hope for. He had not even
a nodding acquaintance with her He had
been introduced to her brother and had
almost laughed in his face. But how
was he to know that that gaunt individual
with O. busted under lip and milk on
his boot was brother to an angel.
The farmer and the new man had met
once since-only once. The agent had
smiled and said good morning" The
farmer, wearing natty spring suit had
given him, a cold-stage stare and asked
for round trip to Chicago. The fair
one had looked al the new man on the
morning of her arrival, not once but
twice or thrce--he had caught her at It
and # pleased his vanity, but now she
never lifted her big blue eyes from the hot
pine boards of the depot platform as she
strolled. past. Manifestly she had seen
her brother
And so che days went by. To-day, pre-
cisely like yesterday, and tomorrow the
same. as to-day OF morning he had
ham and eggs, at noon, in the one-chair
barber shop, he read the pictures in the
Police Gazette, and at evening heard the
village band "practicing"' in the village
park.
AS early as in the morning the farm
er-folk began to arrive in carriages car
ry-alls in lumber wagons, afoot abike
and on horseback. They were coming into
the village. to take, the excursion train
for DEVILS Lake, where they were going
to read the declaration of independence
and sing the praises of the land of Yam
kee-Doodledom.
According to the notion of the farmer
folk, there was but one train. but the
agent knew better; and tried 20 tell them,
but, they would not understand. At s
| O'Clock long train, drawn by two loco
motives, slowed for the crossing and then
steamed up TO the station. but, to the
| amazement of the multitude steamed on