The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-31

palm ne closed his fist. This was a
very bad thing to do, for the next in
slant the teacher had toppled over in
mt and the children were in an nm
roar. NF
AS his first closed, the steam spurted
out OF his nostrils. He opened his
mouth to yell something, but the
whistle went foot, toot, foot"
In less than a minute the room was
hlled with steam which poured out of
the open windows. The children
screamed with terror and someone
shouted:
Fire! Fire! The school house is
Before Zeke could stop his steam
engine works firemen were playing
two great streams of water into the
room while a big crowd had gathered
outside, wondering all the time why.
with so much smoke, there was no
| flame.
The water soaked every boy and girl
to the skin. but Zeke quickly leaped
out of r back window and at once shut
off steam by closing his left fist tight
ly. He did not quite know what he
had done, but figured out that he
would be arrested anyway, he started
| for home.
The rear fence was so high he could
not get over. He had to climb the
front one. In doing so he unfortu-
nately closed his fatal right hand and
he had no more than touched the
ground with his feet than a woman on
+! the other side of the street saw the
steam and screamed:
Mercy The boy is on fire!"
After him came the two fire engines.
When he glanced back and saw the
glaring eyes of the wild horses almost
at his shoulder he clenched both fists
in his efforts to run faster. With that
his mouth went foot, toot foot" so
loud 1T sounded like the whistle of
! real locomotive: there was an awful
tearing around in his lungs and stom-
ach and the steam from his nostrils
/ began going "choo- hoo-choo-choo"
Slowly at first, then quicker and
| quicker, the legs of the boy went in an
| effort to keep time with the choo-choo-
ing, and the livelier the choo-choos
became the more speed he put in his
legs.
Horses all along the street reared
and many of them broke loose and
ran away; people rushed from the
! stores and dwellings, and Zeke, not
| knowing what he should do, lost all
control of his legs and went almost
flying in his attempts to get away from
| the terrifying fire engines.
| When he had been going for some
| time and thought himself safe from
| his pursuers the boy. who by this time
had become as speedy as an express
| locomotive shut off steam and hid be-
| hind big tree.
| Right past him dashed the fire en-
| gines with the four wild-eyed horses,
! and following them closely were hun
| dreds of carriages and automobiles car
rying people who were nearly breaking
| their necks to see the burning boy.
After the last one had passed Zeke
| sneaked from his cover and started
back for home.
In the meantime the firemen had
! given up the chase and were coming
slowly and sadly back to town One
of the men spied Zeke.
TITS the burning boy!" shouted the
fire chief, turn on the hose. Lively,
men,"
| With a dash and a short scramble
the men were down from their engines.
the hose was quickly attached to a
| plug, and two great streams of water
were turned on the boy. who was by
this time choo-chooing his way home
| in a hurry.
After him dashed the engines and it
was a close race to the public square
around which the youngster turned
with the pursuers close behind.
Around and around the park they
| went, the galloping horses putting and
snorting, the boy choo-chooing and
| toot-tooting, and the onlookers yelling.
The race lasted more than an hour,
until the wild-eyed horses were so tired
they couldn't even keep up a respecta-
BILE trot.
Zeke was so weary of running around
on his steam engine legs that he made
up his mind to stop in some manner,
but he didn't like the idea of running
into tree or brick building for fear
his works might explode. So he
started for the lake a mile away.
After him came the wild-eyed horses
again. He couldn't stop the thing now
by closing his left hand and he knew
that If the firemen caught him they
would give him strong dose from the
hose
When he reached the lake he toot-
footed and choo-chooed away out on
the pier. gave mighty leap and went
down in forty-seven feet of water.
As the burning boy engine sank be-
low the surface of the pretty lake, a
spot and was followed by a rumblinS
noise like thunder.
The people on the shore turned their
heads away to shut out the horrible
sight OF the explosion.
When they looked again there was
Zeke Higgins. calmly swimming
ashore. He came out, shook the water
from his hair and eyes and acted Just
as II nothing had happened
He had no more hot feelings IL his
chest and 20 this day his nostrils have
never choo-chooed again. while his at
tempts al whGtiing are very funny be-
cause the whistle is 50 low.
The lake Is SAN there and 10 Is the
pretty square around which was run
the great race.
CTo be eonunued)