“Yes, siree!” declared George. “Everybody stuck it out. Nobody quit.”
“The two roads laid over 1,000 miles of track in thirteen months; did you know?” Terry asked.
“Of course I know. The whole country knows; papers have been full of it. Whew, but I’d like to have been along, on the job; across the deserts and across the mountains, and clear here, to the meeting of the tracks. Expect you’re right proud.”
“Naw, we’re too hungry to be swelled up much,” bluffly answered George. “But it was no slouch of a job, just the same. Was it, Terry?”
“Not for Joe!” Terry asserted, in the latest slang. “But everybody’s proud, I guess—from General Dodge and Mr. Durant, down to us.”
“Do you know?” said young Mr. Duff, abruptly—as if he had discovered something. “When a fellow looks at this iron trail, clear across country, he realizes that it’s a great thing to be an American.”
THE END
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.