Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-09-06

were fair quantities, and there was
more or less hasfy grooming. But to
Silver, accustomed to such little amen
tiles as friendly pats from men and the
conradeship of his fellow workers. it
was like bad dream. He was not
even cheered BY the fact that his leg.
intelligently treated by the stable boss,
was growing better What did that
matter? Had he not lost his caste?
Express and dray horses, the very ones
that had once scurried into side streets
at sound of his hoofs, now lnsolently
srowded him to the curb. When he
aad been on the truck Silver had yield
I'd the right of way to none. He had
held his head high. Now he lodged
and waited. he wore blind bride. and
he wished neither to see nor to be seen.
For three months Silver had pulled
that hateful refuse chariot about the
streets. thankful only that he traversed
u section of the city new to him. Then
one day he was sent out with new
driver whose route lay along familiar
ways. The thing Silver dreaded, that
which he had long feared, did not hap
pen for more than a week after the
change.
1t came early one morning. He had
been backed up in front Of a big Of
fee building where a dozen bulky cans
numbered the sidewalk. The driver
was Just lifting one of them to the tall
board when, from far down the street,
there reached Silver's ears a well
known sound. Nearer it swept; louder
and louder it swelled. The old gray
lifted bis lowered head in spite of his
determination not to look The driver,
too, poised the can on the cart edge
and waited, gazing.
In moment the noise and its cause
were opposite Old Silver hardly need
ed to glance before knowing the truth.
1t was his old company. the Gray
Horse truck There was his old driv-
er; there were bis old team mates. In
a flash there passed from Silver's mind
all memory of his humble condition,
his wretched state Tossing bis head
and giving his tail swish, he leaped
toward the apparatus, neatly upsetting
the filed ash can over the head and
shoulders of the bewildered driver.
By a supreme effort Silver dropped
into the old lope. A dozen bounds took
him abreast the nigh horse, and, in
spite of Lannigan's shouts, there he
stuck, littering the newly swept pave
ment most disgracefully at every
jump. Thus strangely accompanied,
>the Gray Horse truck Numbered up
Broadway for ten blocks, and when it
stopped, before a building in which a
careless watchman's lantern had set
off the automatic, Old Silver was part
of the procession.
1t was Lannigan who, in the midst
Of an eloquent flow of indignant abuse,
made this announcement: Why, boys,
lists our Old Silver; jiggered if it
ain'tr'
Each member of the crew having ex-
pressed his astonishment in appropriate
words, Lannigan tried to sum it all up:
Silver, you old sinner! SO they've
put you in BANKED ash cart, have
they? Well, rll-I'll be-
But there speech falleQ MN. Ills
wits did not. There was a whispered
council Of war. Lannigan made dar-
ing proposition. at which all grinned
appreciatively.
Sure, they'd never find out" said
one.
"An see, his game legs most as
good as new again" suggested another.
It was an unheard of, audacious and
preposterous proceeding; one which the
rules and regulations of the fire depart
ment, many and varied as they are.
never anticipated. But it was adopted.
Meanwhile the captain found it neces-
sary to inspect the interior of the build
ing, the lieutenant turned his back, and
the thing was done.
That same evening an i'll tempered
and very dirty ash cart driver turned