"
"Oh! will you? I guess my time is all fixed so you can't touch it. I
only wish you could; I'd like mighty well to be fired from this job; I
wouldn't even wait for my pay."
I had been sitting at my desk taking it all in, and was just about
ready to expire with laughter, when Burke called over to me: "Did you
hear that young fellow's impudence?"
"Yes, I heard."
"Well, what are you going to do about it? I've never had an operator
talk to me like that before. I must certainly insist that you dismiss
him at once. He and I can't work on the same road."
"Unfortunately, Burke," said I, "the State has a claim on his services
for two years yet, and I am afraid they won't waive it."
At this it dawned upon Burke, who and what the man really was; but I
cannot say that his humor was improved at once by the discovery.
One morning shortly after this I was sitting in my office making up an
annual train report, and was cussing out anything and everybody, because
this train report is one of the worst things in the whole business. It
was figures till you couldn't rest, and I had already been working at it
for three days, and my head was in a perfect whirl.
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