The secretary, somewhat refreshed by a good breakfast, waded through the mail, making marks and notations occasionally with a blue pencil on the turned down corners of letters. Some of the communications were referred to the general traffic manager, some to the general passenger agent, others to the superintendent of motive power and machinery. They were all sorted carefully and deposited in wicker baskets, bearing the initials of the different departments. Many were dropped into the basket marked "G. M." but most of the matter was disposed of by the secretary himself, for the chief clerk of a great railway system, having the signature of the General Manager, is one of the busiest, and usually one of the brightest men in the company's employ. The general manager in his private office pored over the morning papers, puffing vigorously now and then as he perused a paragraph that praised the strikers, but, when the literature was to his liking, smoked slowly and contentedly, like a man without a care. Such were the scenes and conditions in and about the general offices of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company when a light foot-step was heard in the hall and a gentle voice came singing: "_Always together in sunshine and rain. Facing the weather_--" "Good morning, Patsy," said the chief clerk, looking up as Patsy paused at the gate, removed his hat and bowed two or three short quick bows with his head without bowing his body. "I beg your pardon," said Patsy, "I thought you were alone." "Well, I am alone." "No you're not--I'm here. Always together--" "Come! Come! Patsy don't get funny this morning." "Get funny! how can I get funny when I'm already funny? I was born funny--they had fun with me at the christening, and I expect they'll have the divil's own time with me at the wake. Always--" "Sh! Sh!--Be quiet," said the secretary, nodding his head and his thumb in the direction of the door of the private office. "Is the governor in?" asked Patsy. "Yes." "Now that's lucky for me, for I wanted to ask a favor and I want it to-day, and if the governor was not in you would say, 'I'll have to see the governor;' then when I came back you would say 'The governor has left the office, and I forgot it,' but now that the governor is here you can do it yourself. I want to go to Council Bluffs." "All right, Patsy, you can go if you can persuade those friends of yours to allow us to run a train." "On the Q?" "That's the only line we control." "Not on your salary." "Then you can't go," said the clerk, as he resumed the work before him. "What's the matter with the North Western?" asked Patsy in an earnest, pleading tone. "You ought to know that we can't give passes over a competing line."