Frank Armstrong, Drop Kicker

by Matthew M. Colton

Frank's unexpected display of the ability to read the telegraph by sound, was a great incentive to the others of our quintet of boys, and they worked with might and main. Pasted in each room was a large white card ornamented in the Codfish's best style with the Morse alphabet and figures spread boldly thereon, and this is what they studied morning, noon and night, and sometimes in between:

A—dot dash.	N—dash dot.
B—dash and three dots.	O—dot space dot.
C—two dots space dot.	P—five dots.
D—dash two dots.	Q—two dots dash dot.
E—one dot.	R—dot space two dots.
F—dot dash dot.	S—three dots.
G—two dashes dot.	T—one short dash.
H—four dots.	U—two dots dash.
I—two dots.	W—dot two dashes.
J—dash dot dash dot.	X—dot dash two dots.
K—dash dot dash.	Y—two dots space two dots.
L—one long dash.	Z—three dots space dot.
M—two dashes.

1—dot dash dash dot.	6—six dots.
2—two dots dash two dots.	7—two dashes two dots.
3—three dots dash dot.	8—dash four dots.
4—four dots dash.	9—dash two dots dash.
5—three dashes.	0—one long dash (longer than letter L).

"And Murphy says that's all a fellow needs to know, to do almost any kind of telegraphing. Sounds easy, doesn't it?" said Frank, one day. "And it is easy to remember the signals themselves, but when they come flying over the wire it's a different story."

"How are you getting on with the telegraph?" inquired David, one night of Lewis, who was listening to the measured ticking of the instrument.

"Great," said Lewis, "I guess I'll be able to take a job on the railroad pretty soon."

"Get out," said Jimmy scornfully. "Lewis makes a great fuss about it because he can tell such little things as e and i and h and things like that. I can do better than that myself. I have a speaking acquaintance with the big, forbidding fellows like q and x and all the high dignitaries."

For a time the lessons suffered by the introduction of this new toy, but by and by it began to take its natural place in the day or night. They picked up the reading wonderfully quickly and, as the days went on, Murphy was able to take a faster gait. Perhaps they didn't understand all of it, but it was a great joy to be able to pick out small words as the instrument rattled along. All of the boys were able to "send" pretty well, which as every one knows is the easy part of telegraphing. It is the receiving that is so difficult.

Often Frank and Jimmy held labored conversations over the wire when Murphy had cut out and left them to themselves, and it generally happened that they were obliged to stick their heads out of the window to confirm by voice what had been said and to fill in the gaps which were not clear.