The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-08-10

''HE JUST CAME AND TOOK HIS sCoRN AND
JOKED AND LAUGHED.
wore rough clothes, which showed he
Want afraid to work and never thought
about how he looked.
80 when Jim Furness saw her from
parlor car window one day and threw
his baggage off and lost his ticket just
through q crazy idea of winning her
Lois turned him down so quick that
didn't have a chance to say a word,
mad as | was. You know how Lois
is when she's stirred up like this. She
just looks and turns away, and there's
no need for her nor anybody else to say
a word.
well with other folks that would
have ended it, but Jim he just turned
round and got a job firing on local
engine that helped pull freight up our
side of the divide, You see, he seemed
tc understand by instinct that Lois and
l believed in work and didn't care for
dressed up effect But. pshaw. You
know how it is with Jim. Put him on
the dirtieSt job going and his hands
will stay white and soft like girls.
and the toughest clothes ever was have
way of hanging on him like they
We're tailor made. and, as to his voice.
IL YOU turned his engine end over and
down the mountain, when it got to the
bottom Jim'S voice if he had any left,
NVDIIl1 lao n cnft aud l,a wilma, ot-or
I'VE saw good deal of Jim now, for,
with me as station agent and our liv-
ing rooms upstairs Lois and | We're
sort of chums with everything on the
railroad. Maybe that was what started
Jim to getting his job so quick and
having it 50 he could switch back and
forth in front of the station every few
hours ana stay in our town over night.
Maybe he figured that just being a
railroad man would be sort of rec
Ommendation.
But if so it didn't seem to help him
much There We're big. strapping engi-
neers on the road who had done things,
risked life and looked square at death
without winkiug, and there were con
ductorS and section bosses and one 10
cal superintendent and a passenger
agent who liked Lois and who would
have been glad for her to have liked
them, and nearly all had done things.
You see, our section right along here is
tough piece of road, and all the EN-
ployees who have been on it a few years
and are not killed have stories to tell.
Now but Lois hates personal talk
that touches on brag, so it doesn't mat
ter
"But, as l was saying. pretty much
the whole road liked Lois, and Lois
she liked the whole road as a VIII Die,
but wouldn't single out any one in par
ticular And, as for Jim, she scorned
him openly, and he knew it.
Now, didn't like Jim myself, so of
course l couldn't feel the pity for him
that | would for anybody else. But.
pshaw. If he felt it he never showed
by any signs. He just came and took
his scorn and joked and laughed and
made us laugh and then came back for
more scOrn the very next time his en-
CINE pulled in. Now, | ask candidly
what can you do with a fellow like
that? The others laughed at him. and
he laughed with them. Then after a
while some of the more rough ones,
thinking him soft and good natured and
without backbone, went a little too far.
and his white fingers closed together
like steel springs, and more than one
of them had to lay off for repairs. But
Jim didn't seem to hold any grudges.
He laughed and talked to those who
treated him the worst until they had
TO laugh and talk back, and then the
first anybody knew they were all the
best of friends.
But the strangest part, of course,
was about Lois. Jim never did a sim
gle brave thing so far as l know, risk
his life In saving train of passengers
Or anything like that, and he spent a
lot of money in helping people in one
way and another-a good deal more
than his salary could possibly amount
either of these things was
enough to keep Lois scornful. She had
no use at all for man unless he was
brave and no use for one who wasn't
absolutely honest, and of course spend