THE COUNTRY BOY 113 



out and tried to use it, when Clara JNlorris died 

 just as the curtain went down, but we had 

 caught colds from our feet wet from our own 

 tears. Adda's waist, which was green surah 

 silk of the country pattern, looked like isin- 

 glass in a new stove. After we left the 

 theatre we met a friend a few blocks away 

 who asked what had happened to us and Adda 

 broke down and began to sob. The friend 

 thought at first that I had beaten her, till I told 

 him we had been to see Clara INIorris play 

 "Camille." We got home the next day, look- 

 ing and feeling bad. The folks asked us 

 how it was and we told them it was fine, but 

 it wasn't a comic opera. 



The Narrow Gauge Kailroad finally came 

 to Silverton and then the town took a boom 

 toward the depot. I got a job as engine 

 wiper and owing to father's prominence got 

 promoted to fireman on the oldest engine on 

 the road. The other engine was new and shiny 

 and could run faster, and on that engine my 

 father's pioneer friend's son was the engineer 

 and his fireman was a halfbreed Indian. I 

 w^orked hard for some months and dreamed 

 nights of this halfbreed's bringing me orders 



