The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-18

spur track there came careening an asthmatic switch engine with 8 half dozen empty flats in tow. With g brave puff1ng and blowing of leaky cylinder heads, it rattled across an open space between piles of timber in the mill yard and disappeared with a shrill toot of warning for unseen work men upon the tracks ahead. The boy froze to granite-like immobility as it flashed into view. Long after it had passed from sight he stood like 8 bit of fantastic figure cut from stone Then a tremor shook him from head to foot and when it came slowly about Caleb saw that his small face was even whiter than it had been before be- heath, its coat of tan and powdery dust.
 He swalloMed hard and tried to speak and had to swallow again be- fore the words would come.
 "Oh, I-may-die." he broke out fall teringly then. There goes a .injine! 4, A,steam in5ine, want it?"
 Long afterward, when he had realized that the boys life was to bring again and again repetition of that sublime moment of realization-a moment of fulfillment unspoiled by surfeit or so- phistication or blunted capacity to marvel, which Caleb had seen grow old and stale even in the children he knew he wondered and wished that he might have known it himself, once at least. Years of waiting, starved years of anticipation, he felt after all must have been very little price to pay for that great, binding, gasping moment. But at the time, amazed at the boys white face, amazed at the hushed fer vor in the words he forgot, he spoke before he thought.
 .But haven't you ever seen an engine before?' ?'' he asked.
 As soon as the question had left his lips he would have given much to have had it back again. But at that it fail ed to have the effect which he feared too late to check. Instead of coloring with hurt and shame, instead of subterfuge or evasion, thd boy sim ply, lifted his eyes levelly to Caleb's. face.
 q ain,t never seed nuthin'," he stat Cd patiently, T ain't never seed more'n three houses together in a clearin' before I--I ain't never been outen the timber-till today But I aim to see more naow-before I git donep'
 ~The view is excellent from my yeranda,' said Caleb as he waved a hand behind him. "And-you look a little warm and tired. If your busi- ness is not of too pressing nature have ,you"-he broke off, amazed at his helpless formality in the matter-"hare you come far?''
 And he wondered immediately how the boy would receive that suggestion that he hesitate, ,Nthere with the .'city" in front of him, a fairy tale to be ex- plored. And again he was allowed to catch glimpse of age old spirit-a glimpse of man sized self discipline beneath the childish exterior.
 The boy hesitated moment, but 1t was his uncertainty as to just what Caleb's invitation had offered and not the lure of the town which made him pause. He took one step forward.
 q been comin' since last Friday" he explained T been comfn' daown riv- CT for three days naow, and been comin' fast!"
 Again that measuring, level glance.
 "An' ain't got no business-yit," he went on. '"Thet's what aim to locate after I've he'd a chance to look around a trifie. But am tired little, an SO if you mean thet you're askin' me to stop for a minit-if you mean thet you're askin'. me that-why, then then I guess don't mind if I do"
 "That's what mean," said Caleb.
 And the little figure preceded him across his soft, crppped lawn.
 Caleb Hunter had never married, and even now at the age. of forty and odd in particularly mellow moments he was liable to confess that, while mat rimony no doubt offered far wider feid for both general excitement and variety, as far as he himself was con cerned he felt that his bachelor condi- ton had points of excellence too ob- vious to be treated with contumely. Perhaps the fact that Sarah Hunter, four years his senior, had Kept so well oiled the cogs of the domestic ma chinery of the white place on the hill that their churnings had never been evidenced may have been in part an answer to his contentment.
 For Sarah Hunter, too, had, never married. To the townspeople, who had never dared to try to storm the wall of her apparent frigidity or been able quite to understand her aloof austeri- ty, she was little more than weekly occurrence as dependable as the rising and setting of the sun itself. Every Sunday morning rare vision of state ly dignity for nll her tininess, assisted by Caleb. she descended from the Hun ter equipage to enter the portals of the Morrison Baptist church. After the service she reappeared and, having complimented the minister upon the sagacity of his discourse, again assist ed by Caleb she mounted to the real seat of the surrey and rolled back uI the hill.
 That was as much as the townspeo