"IN THE BARN."—From a Painting by H. Allingham.
[HOW TOM RAN THE ENGINE WITHOUT WOOD OR WATER.]
BY CHARLES BARNARD.
Once upon a time a rich man built a school for boys, in which they might study surveying, engineering, mechanics, and the sciences one needs to know to be a railroad man. This man began life as a train-boy, and steadily pushed his way up to be fireman, engineer, master-mechanic, and finally President of a railroad. He often said his own chance in life would have been better if he could have gone to school when a boy, and learned from books about steam and engines, levels, inclines, and curves, before he undertook to fire a boiler or take a locomotive over the road. As it was, he got his education by hard knocks, heavy work on the engine's foot-plate, and weary toil in the machine-shop. So it happened he built the school close to the repair shops of the road of which he was President. He put good teachers and good books in the school, and then opened it, free, to the sons of the brakemen, conductors, engineers, and other men employed on the line. In the school the boys were to study the science of the railroad and locomotive, and then, if they afterward went to work on the road, they would not have such a hard time as the train-boy who became President.
Twice every year the President offered a Waltham watch as a prize to the boy in the school who should write the best composition on any subject connected with the things they had been studying, or anything in relation to engines or railroads. Tom Stayboltt, whose father was conductor on the night express, had been in the school three years, and had tried five times for the prize, and lost it every time. Tom was regarded by all the scholars as the brightest boy in the school. He stuttered in his speech, and his handwriting was as stiff as a switch-rod, yet he was always at the head of his class. You could never trip him on any knotty questions as to whether the cylinders were on top of the boilers or under the tender. He knew the name and use of every bit of metal in an engine, and it was believed by all the boys that he was a good engineer, and could take his father's train right through to the Junction, without running past a red light, or wasting steam on the down grades.
The semi-annual prize had been announced, and nearly every boy in the school was busy over his composition.
"I-i-it's no use, b-b-boys. I shall not try for the p-p-prize. I can't write, and I never can t-t-tell—tell what I know. If they would give a prize for doing something, I think I might g-g-get—get it."
Tom was a great favorite in the school, and not one of the boys laughed at this speech. They were taught manners, as well as mechanics, in that school, and the boys well knew that what Tom said was true. They might write compositions and get prizes, but when it came to doing the things, why, Tom Stayboltt would beat them all.