“Know anything about locomotives?”
“No, sir.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s no use to talk to you. The only work for an inexperienced man in this place is that of wiper, and you would not like that kind of work.”
“I must do something. Can you give me a place as wiper?”
The foreman lifted his eyebrows and again surveyed the youth critically.
“It can’t be that you understand what wipers have to do. It is the lowest and dirtiest work on a railroad.”
“I presumed so.”
“They have to wipe engines, turn the table, shovel ashes, wash out boilers and tanks, help the machinists to lug and lift, and do a hundred other things equally unpleasant.”
“But there is a chance for promotion?”