Moran remembered now that Bennie had come to him that morning in the round-house and begged the engineer to "ask for him," to go out as fireman on the gravel train, for it was really a boy's work to keep an engine hot on a side track, but he would not promise, and the boy had been greatly disappointed. "I'd like to ask for the boy," said Moran, "with your permission. He's been at me all morning, and I'm sure the foreman won't object if you consent." "But he's so young, Dan; he could never do the work." "I'll look out for him," said the engineer, nodding his head. "I'll keep him busy waiting on me when we lay up, and when we have a hard run for a meeting-point there's always the head brakeman, and they can usually fire as well as a fireman." "I will consent only to please him," she said, "and because I should like to have him with you." He thanked her for the compliment, and took up his hat to go. "And how often shall I see you now? I mean--how soon--when will Bennie be home again?" They were standing close together in the little hall, and when he looked deep into her eyes, she became confused and blushed like a school-girl. "Well, to be honest, we never know on a run of this sort when we may get back to town. It may be a day, a week, or a month," said Moran. "But I'll promise you that I will not keep him away longer than is necessary. We don't work Sundays, of course, and I'll try and dead-head him in Saturday nights, and you can send him back on the fast freight Sunday evenings. The watchman can fire the engine in an emergency, you know." "But the watchman couldn't run her in an emergency?" queried the little woman. "I'm afraid not," said Moran, catching the drift of her mind, and feeling proud of the compliment concealed in the harmless query. "But I shall enjoy having him come to you once a week to show you that I have not forgotten my promise." "And I shall know," she answered, putting up a warning finger, "by his actions whether you have been good to him." "And by the same token I can tell whether you are happy," rejoined the engineer, taking both her hands in his to say good-bye. Moran went directly to the round-house and spoke to the foreman, and when Bennie came home that evening he threw himself upon his mother's neck and wept for very joy. His mother wept, too, for it means something to a mother to have her only boy go out to begin life on the rail. After supper they all went over to the little general store, where she had once been refused credit--where she had spent their last dollar for Christmas presents for little Bennie and his father, chiefly his father--and bought two suits of bright blue overclothes for the new fireman. "Mother, I once heard the foreman say that Dan Moran had been like a father to papa," said Bennie that evening. "Guess he'll start in being a father to me now, eh! mother?"