XVI 



THE TANK ENGINE 



I AM sorry to confess it, but when I was 

 a boy we rather looked down upon the 

 tank engine. You see, he had no name- 

 only a number and was rarely employed 

 upon fast trains. 



On fine summer days we used to sit on 

 a footbridge that crossed the old North- 

 Western main line and take names name- 

 snatching we called it. 



The result was that at first we took an 

 interest only in named engines, which were, 

 of course, the express locomotives of our 

 greatest railway. 



But even all those years ago we noticed 

 that the busy little tank engines were 

 making headway on a line that was not 

 particularly partial to them. 



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