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down the track, harrowed between the clash of his impulses. Finally he decided that he would not go to Irontown. He could do nothing for Nessie. He could not marry her—he would not dare to. A hill adage popped into his head, "Who faithless is before she wed, will faithless be to marriage bed."

This decided Abner. No, he'd be damned if he'd go!

Here the shriek of a whistle caused him to look down the track. The construction train was coming. Then something deeper than his adage seized the youth and moved him toward the platform. But his rebellion toward Nessie was still in progress. And a plan popped into his head how he could, as it were, both go and not go at one and the same time. As he passed the caboose he shouted to the engineer, "Hey, cap, lemme ride, won't ye?"

"What the hell you want to go to Arntown fer?" growled the engineer. "Looks like you'd be goin' t'other direction."

Evidently the whole world knew of his affair.

"That's the point," explained the youth earnestly. "I wanted you to kinder slow up an lemme off before we reached town—got to git my clothes," he lied, to conceal all trace of his tenderness.

"It's against the rules. All I can do is to tell you to keep off."

This meant Abner could ride. He climbed up into the caboose and a few seconds later a voice shouted, "All aboard!" The grimy one moved levers and wheels; the mass of iron came to life and started panting down the new uneven track.

Abner stuck his head out of the caboose window, and the cold rush of air somehow comforted him. He thought to himself, "I won't go plum into Arntown, I'll sorter scout aroun' an' see how the lan' lays, an' then . . ." Here his thoughts drifted vaguely and wistfully toward Nessie. He caught a vision of himself holding the girl in his arms, fondling her, weeping over her, saying, "Nessie, did ye think I wuzn't comin' back? Why, honey, I'd wade through fire