And all
in a single day.
"Come," said the young fellow; and they started down the track. The
freight was whistling for brakes, far up the grade. And Samuel's heart
thumped with excitement.
They crouched in the bushes, not far beyond the tank. But the train
did not stop for water; it only slowed down for a curve, and it
thundered by at what seemed to Samuel an appalling rate of speed.
"Jump!" shouted the other, and started to run by the track. He made a
leap, and caught, and was whirled on, half visible in a cloud of dust.
Samuel's nerve failed him. He waited, while car after car went by. But
then he caught hold of himself. If anyone could do it, so could he.
For shame.
He started to run. There came a box-car, empty, with the door open,
and he leaped and clutched the edge of the door. He was whirled from
his feet, his arms were nearly jerked out of him. He was half blinded
by the dust, but he hung on desperately, and pulled himself up. A
minute more and he lay gasping and trembling upon the floor of the
car. He was on his way to the city.
After a while, Samuel began to think; and then scruples troubled him.
He was riding free; but was he not really stealing? And would his
father have approved of his doing it? He had begun his career by
yielding to temptation! And this at the suggestion of a young fellow
who boasted of drinking and thieving! Simply to start such questions
was enough, with Samuel; and he made up his mind that when he reached
the city the first thing he would do would be to visit the office of
the railroad, and explain what he had done, and pay his fare.
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