The young engineer sat in front to steer, and Jimmy-Boy sat just behind and clung to him, and then came, Dixie and Carol, Ken and Miss Bayley.
Once, just for mischief, Mr. Edrington steered into a drift, and they were all half-buried, but they took the ducking good-naturedly.
The young engineer also spent long hours reading in the cabin of his good friend, Josephine Bayley. One of the Martin children accompanied him on these occasions, usually Dixie, who was old enough to enjoy the books that her two older friends liked to read aloud to each other.
While school was in session the young engineer was not idle, for he had with him his instruments, and many a chart he made as he studied the way to bridge chasms or to tunnel mountains.
February the first was Dixie’s birthday. Knowing that her sister and brother could not give her presents, that thoughtful little mother did not remind them of the coming event, and, childlike, they had quite forgotten, for all winter days seemed alike to them. But there was one who had not forgotten, and that one was Miss Bayley. She took Frederick Edrington into her confidence, and a surprise-party was planned and carried out.
The girl-teacher’s present to her favorite pupil was in a box, the shape of which aroused much curiosity, but when Dixie saw the gift it contained, her plain face was transfigured.
“Why, that girl is beautiful!” the young engineer said softly to the teacher who stood at his side, watching while the slender maid lifted a bow and violin.
“Miss Bayley!” How starlike were the eyes that turned toward the beloved friend and benefactress. “Do you really think that some day I shall be able to play?”
There was conviction in the tone of the young woman as she said, “I know it! Some day we shall all listen in rapture, I’ll prophesy, and then we’ll say proudly, one to another, ‘That is our Dixie.’”
Going to the girl, Miss Bayley kissed her. “May I take your violin, dear? I studied several musical instruments in school, but cannot play any of them well.”