They cheered him and clapped him, and every man there resolved to do better work, if possible, in the coming year than he had done in the past one.
And yet there were some of the officials in the far-distant general offices at Baltimore who wondered why the superintendent of the Ohio division was so popular with his men!
Jack came to Allan at last and gripped his hand with a strength that proved how deep his emotion was.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re goin’ home on Number Seven. It’ll start in a minute.”
They went together across the tracks and clambered into the coach. Allan caught a confused picture of a glare of lights and laughing people crowding past. But hardly had the train started when his head fell back against the seat, and slumber claimed him.
Jack waked him up at the journey’s end, and together they hurried through the yards and up the steep path to the little cottage. Jack’s wife was awaiting him in the doorway, and he drew forth the check and placed it in her hands.
“We won,” he said, softly. “’Twas fer you, Mary, I wanted t’ win. It means th’ new dress you’ve been a-needin’ so long, an’ a dress fer Mamie; yes, an’ a new carpet.”
The wife said not a single word, but drew Jack’s face down to hers and kissed it.
“Only,” he added, when his head was lifted, “I want t’ give tin dollars of it t’ th’ boys—I’d ’a’ lost if it hadn’t been fer them. An’ Reddy—how’s old Reddy?”