"I don't know what struck me then, but I said: "'No one but this boy shall put a scoop of coal in the 12 or any other engine for me; I'll take the poorest run you have, but the Kid goes with me.' "Talk was useless, and in the end the Kid and I quit and got our time. "That evening the Kid came to my room and begged me to take my job back and he would go home; but I wouldn't do it, and asked him if he was sick of me. "'No, Jim,' said he. 'I live in fear that something will happen to separate us, but I don't want to be a drag on you--I think more of you than anybody.' "They were buying engines by the hundred on the Rio Grande and Santa Fé and the A. & P. in those days, and the Kid and I struck out for the West, and inside of thirty days we were at work again. "We had been there three months, I guess, when I got orders to take a new engine out to the front and leave her, bringing back an old one. The last station on the road was in a box-car, thrown out beside the track on a couple of rails. There was one large, rough-board house, where they served rough-and-ready grub and let rooms. The latter were stalls, the partitions being only about seven feet high. It was cold and bleak, but right glad we were to get there and get a warm supper. Everything was rough, but the Kid seemed to enjoy the novelty. After supper I asked the landlord if he could fix us for the night. "'I can jest fix ye, and no more,' said he; 'I have just one room left. Ye's'll have to double up; but this is the kind o' weather for that; it'll be warmer.' "The Kid objected, but the landlord bluffed him--didn't have any other room--and he added: 'If I was your pardner there, I'd kick ye down to the foot, such a cold strip of bacon as ye must be.' "About nine o'clock the Kid slipped out, and not coming in for an hour, I went to look for him. As I went toward the engine, I met the watchman: "'Phy don't that fireman o' yourn sleep in the house or on the caboose floor such a night as this? He'll freeze up there in that cab wid no blankets at all; but when I tould him that, he politely informed meself that he'd knowed men to git rich mindin' their own biz. He's a sassy slip of a Yankee.' "I climbed up on the big consolidation, and, lighting my torch, looked over the boiler-head at the Kid. He was lying on a board on the seat, with his overcoat for a covering and an arm-rest for a pillow. "'What's the matter with you, Kid?' I asked. 'What are you doing freezing here when we can both be comfortable and warm in the house? Are you ashamed or afraid to sleep with me? I don't like this for a cent.' "'Hope you won't be mad with me, Jim, but I won't sleep with any one; there now!' "'You're either a fool or crazy,' said I. 'Why, you will half freeze here. I want some explanation of such a trick as this.' "The Kid sat up, looked at me soberly for a few seconds, reached up and unhooked his door, and said: "'Come over and sit down, Jim, and I'll tell you something.'