They gave him a chest full of wonderful tools when he got to be six years old,
And he made up his mind to go forth in the world and become a carpenter bold.
"I've gimlets and saws, and hammers and nails, I've jack-planes and awls," said he;
"I've rulers and screws. How can I refuse a carpenter-man for to be?
"The first thing to learn is to hammer a nail." And he got out his hammer and tacks,
And he hammered, and hammered, and hammered away till he'd used up a half-dozen packs.
He nailed up the doors, and he nailed down the floors, and he nailed 'em again and again,
And he made no mistake till he hammered a tack through the nursery window-pane.
Then he took up his saw, and he tried its teeth. "I must now learn to saw," he said;
And he sawed in two some bureau drawers, and he sawed off the legs of his bed.
And he sawed on the lock of the nursery door till the teeth of the tool grew rough,
And then he sat down and remarked to himself, "Well, I guess I have sawn enough.
"I will now try the awl and the gimlet too, and learn what different kinds
Of holes they make—for they're not alike"—and he bored on the outside blinds.
He bored six holes in the shutter slats, and then made a change again,
And tried his luck on the bureau top with the beautiful two-inch plane.
And then, poor boy! some one came in, and oh, what a fuss was raised!
They spanked that boy for trying to learn when he thought he'd be surely praised;
And his father was mad and his mother was mad, and even his sister cried,
Because he'd taken her desk apart to see what there was inside;
And the baby, too, was as wrathy as they, because for a little while
He'd used the ruler to find how wide was the dear little fellow's smile.
And that's why Bob—the poor little chap!—has changed every future plan,
And is going to be a policeman bold instead of a carpenter-man.
Carlyle Smith.
The C. and V. Railroad half encircles Riverdale on the south and west sides. For the most part it runs along a narrow shelf on the mountain-side many feet above the village, but toward the southwest is the valley of the little Jewell River, and this is crossed by a long, narrow embankment and a high bridge, where the track curves sharply northward.
A few years ago an important part of the traffic over this line consisted of long trains from the far West loaded entirely with hogs. "Earle's excursions," the boys called them, in allusion to the famous pork-packer to whom they were consigned. One afternoon—it was in midsummer—a train of thirty-eight cars and a caboose started from the summit, five miles above Riverdale. The grade is very steep, and the train soon attained a terrific speed as it thundered down the mountain.
No one can tell the cause of the accident, but just as the train struck the embankment at Riverdale it doubled up in the middle like a startled snake, and five cars were forced out of the train and went down the embankment, carrying rails, sleepers, and a foot or two of the road-bed. Fortunately none of the trainmen was on these cars, so no one was injured. But as the cars went crashing down they broke in pieces like kindling-wood. Many hogs were killed and injured, but it is certain that about four hundred large, able-bodied, hungry, half-crazy hogs were let loose upon the outskirts of the lovely village of Riverdale.
Without a moment's hesitation the invaders began their work of destruction. Near the foot of the embankment was the cozy parsonage, and the Rev. Mark Sanders was at work in his garden when the accident occurred. Startled by the crash, he stood staring at the splintering cars until one of them brought up almost against his garden fence, and a dozen screeching hogs were trying to squeeze through the gate together. Then he struck out valiantly with his sharp hoe, and thought he drove all back, and locked the gate. But when he turned about, three hungry hogs were feasting on his early potatoes, and they led him such a chase that he heartily wished that every hog in the world had been in that herd which in ancient times ran violently down a steep place into the sea and were choked.