The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-25
M'NALLY'S PETTY ORBIT.
BY FRANK H. SWEET

who did not have more latitude. He had charge of an outlying switch IF Il railroad yard. All the switches K cept two, called the east and west switches, were managed by system ot levers high up in tower. Bdt tn' east and west switches were placed m charge of men supposed U be faltn1ui. This faithfulness consisted m seven days service a wek from early morn ing until late at night. It really nad not been meant, this fourtsan nous service, but 1t had to be done, ana the yardmaster. five years before, put NC Nally in charge of one switch and Tim mic Troop of the other.
 McNally's switch house, tiny box a telephone and a little room for Mc- Nally. stood at the end of stonewalled cut that led away from the freight yards through yard and over to row of great factories and mills. NOtn- ing could be seen to one side or the other but the fifteen foot wall, nothing before but the two tracks and distant view of brick walls and smokestacks. It was a stone cell, a tomb, thought McNally when he first came Tn, ana ne told the yardmaster so when ne came by. But, the master reminded him or his i'll luck as fireman on the behpo" night wreck and said 1t was that or nothing. McNally accepted the inevit- able, but he envied Timmie Troop the west switch and the open commons and the river.
 It was a year before he accepted with grace. year of rebellion. But when the second spring came, he sett- ened and began to look about him ana wonder if he could not make his iot less solitary. Between the track and the rough stone wall was some ten rect of earth. He would plant seeds ana watch the plants struggle up towaros the blue sky above them. Before the summer was over the switch mouse was a bower of morning glories while gay garden flowers. at times some what smoke begrimed, Haunted their brilliant colors at the freight crews who went over to the mills TOT cars to make up the trains.
 Then the winter came down and he was lonely and the days were long. He was too weary to visit any after night came. Indeed, when he had washed off the soot and dresed him. self fit to go on the streets, decent folk were in bed. He had once been rather a gay fellow, a little garrulous perhaps, fond of dancing and the pretty girls but that was all an impossibility now. He rarely saw a woman save his old landlady and the meek Sisters of Chari' ty who came to see him about payday.
 One wear, two, three and five went by. Timmie Troop, over on the west switch, was knocked on the back by wild engine one night and died in the hospital. McNally applied for the place as soon as he heard of 1t but some one else had gone in. There was a new yardmaster, also, who told him that he was too valuable man where he. was for them to make any changes. There seemed no escape.
 One day in the old deserted factory above McNally's stone wall there were some signs of life. Two back windows that had long been begrimed witf smoke were washed and some rem nants of curtains hung at them. Later a few geraniums in tin cans were sci upon the outside ledge. McNally won- dered but he had no way of finding out who had come to live in an unused factory building.
 It was the springtime. Warmth was in inc air and a few green tufts of weed and grass daringly grew between the chinks of the stone wall. McNally planted his seeds and waited for theil up-springinng. His heart ached> fol what he knew was without. Night after night he determined to stea away to the suburbs, even if he cur tailed his sleep. And. night after night the freight engines came back agair and again and 1t was midnight before he staggered the half mile to his board ing house.
 But in a trice McNally's life changed The old passed away and the new came An hour after he went to work one day he heard some one singing. Until ther he had not realized that it had beer five years since he had heard woman or btEd sing.
 Only a fresh, clear girls voice in som street ditty but sound to thrill lonely mans heart. He looked III agin and again. After a time a reC face, trimmed with gray whiskers. look ed over the wall.
 "Mornin'w said a deep voice. "d'y' happen to have any baecy. mate?' Whereupon McNally tied a packag' of tobacco to a stik and passed 1t up
 Are you living up there? he ven tured to ask. ''and how goes it?" ~ Whereupon the man with the rex face shouted down that he was the nev III dhu "OohA DS . AS%' of a call from him.
 But McNally was shy and 1t wa | not until after the watchman had hook ed a ladder at the top of the wall an many times climbed down for a cha that he would consent to climb up on night when he was done early and hay a bit of supper in the occupied par of the big building. Long since ha
 he heard of Jenny. the singer and "th | old lady" and Johnny" the cripple He had even seen Jenny and Johnn | peering over the wall at him and tn
 flowers. And he did not feel so alon
 or so shut away from humanity.
 But the crowning joy of all cam | when he changed his boarding hous
 and went to live with the McGinni family. Nothing could be more con
 venient. He had only to climb up an
 down the ladder to and Grom tn
 switchhouse, and he felt, although
 was only a calico-curtained corner c
 a big wareroom. that he had a home
 Never had he been so we'll taken car
 of as by "the old lady and Jennie.
 never so amused as by Johnny's pert
 ness and teasing.
 1t was not to be supposed that Jenn | would escape the notice ofthe freigh