“I was quite anxious about you when I heard of the wreck, Ralph,” she said with solicitude. He had not been home since that happening.
“It was not a wreck, mother,” corrected Ralph. Then he briefly recited the incidents of the hold-up.
“It seems as though you were destined to meet 23 with all kinds of danger in your railroad life,” said the widow. “You were delayed considerably.”
“Yes,” answered Ralph, “we had to remove the landslide debris. That took us six hours and threw us off our schedule, so we had to lay over at Dover all day yesterday. One pleasant thing, though.”
“What is that, Ralph?”
“The master mechanic congratulated me this morning on what he called, ‘saving the train.’”
“Which you certainly did, Ralph. Why, whose wagon is that in front of the house?” inquired Mrs. Fairbanks, observing the vehicle outside for the first time.
Ralph explained the circumstances of his rescue of the vehicle to his mother.
“What are you going to do with the farmer’s boy?” she inquired.
“I want to bring him in the house until he recovers.”