Frank felt confidence in himself. He believed he would be able to rise in time, and he had entered the roundhouse with the determination to keep his eyes and ears open and learn everything possible as fast as possible.
Along toward noon, when it happened that there was no worse work for him to do, one of the wipers set him to aiding in cleaning up a locomotive.
It happened that the man was of a sociable turn, and he fell to talking with Frank, asking him many questions, all of which Merry answered truthfully.
“It don’t seem to me that you was cut out for this kind of work,” said the wiper. “But mebbe you may have luck and get somewhere. It’s mighty hard, though. Now, I know every part of an engine, and I can handle one as well as half the engineers, but I don’t get no show. I did think there was a chance for me to get on firing till the strike over on the P. B. & Y. That throwed lots of good men out of work, and some of them came right over here and found jobs firing or running engines, which knocked out us chaps who was waiting for an opening. No telling now when my turn’ll come.”
Frank did his best to cheer the man up, and then found his opportunity to ask a number of questions about the names of the different parts of the engine. Every explanation the wiper made to him he fixed in his mind, and, when noon came, he was satisfied that he had not let his first half day pass without learning something.
“I’ve had my eye on you this forenoon,” he said.
Frank started. He had not fancied that the foreman was noticing him at all.
“Yes; I’ve had my eye on you,” said the foreman. “You’ve worked all right, and you didn’t stand round with your hands in your pockets waiting for somebody to tell you what to do. You found enough to do, and you did it. That’s right. Keep on the same way. That’s all.”
Then he walked away, without another word.