"It was very lonesome for me and I longed to be home again with my dear old friends, and I determined to remain at home if I ever got back. You have no idea what homesickness is until you have had the actual experience. "About 11 o'clock one night, I was passing a saloon near my home when I heard a phonograph playing 'Kentucky Home.' "I entered the place and asked the bartender to change a silver dollar into nickels, which he did. "I sat down by the phonograph and played that piece over and over and over again, till my nickels were gone, then I changed another dollar which went the same way. "I was, by this time, completely saturated with 'My Old Kentucky Home' and the longing to return came so strong that I straightway went to my hotel, packed my trunk, paid my bill, purchased a ticket for Louisville and took the 4 A. M. train for Denver, from whence I departed for home and here's where I'm going to live and die, in spite of all inducements to show me some more favored clime. "Yes, I love 'Kaintuck' and I love that old song you hum," and the stranger was singing his favorite air when the train pulled into Horse Cave. Illustration: End of Chapter 24. THE OFFICE AT SPIRIT LAKE. Mr. Hugh McPhee, the superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Los Angeles, Cal., was night operator at Spirit Lake on the trans-continental line in his early boyhood days. Every operator that worked for the trans-continental line knows Spirit Lake because each one of them served an apprenticeship at that station. The O'Shaughnessys kept a boarding house at Spirit Lake, the only house at this dismal place, but because young McPhee insisted upon wearing a "boiled" shirt and white collar, he found himself debarred from putting his feet under the O'Shaughnessy table. The young man, however, was full of resources and determined to do his own cooking and sleep in the office. The first station east of Spirit Lake was then called Hades and the station west was named Satan. McPhee would get his milk and eggs from Hades and his staple groceries and meats from Satan. The names of these stations have long since been changed to something more euphonious. The fact that there was an operator in Spirit Lake office at night induced the belated trainmen to call upon him repeatedly for orders helping them over the road and presently McPhee found he was working as much at night as he was during the day. An appeal to the superintendent was made and a few days later the train stopped at Spirit Lake and a tall young man, very dudishly dressed, stepped into the office. "My name is Archibald Merriman and I am to be night operator at this station," began the young man. "Where can I find a boarding house?" Young McPhee told him that he would have to take "pot luck," that there was no hotel or boarding house, but that he could share his commissary.