Download Full Version ebook - Visit ebooknice.

com

(Ebook) Begin to Code with JavaScript by Miles,

Rob ISBN 9780136870722, 0136870724

https://ebooknice.com/product/begin-to-code-with-
javascript-55873262

Click the button below to download

DOWLOAD EBOOK

Discover More Ebook - Explore Now at ebooknice.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

Start reading on any device today!

(Ebook) Begin to Code with Python by Rob Miles ISBN

9781509304523, 1509304525

https://ebooknice.com/product/begin-to-code-with-python-7203980

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Begin to Code with C# by Rob Miles ISBN

9781509301157, 1509301151

https://ebooknice.com/product/begin-to-code-with-c-36373908

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook by Loucas, Jason;

Viles, James ISBN 9781459699816, 9781743365571,
9781925268492, 1459699815, 1743365578, 1925268497
https://ebooknice.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-6661374

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Matematik 5000+ Kurs 2c Lärobok by Lena

Alfredsson, Hans Heikne, Sanna Bodemyr ISBN 9789127456600,
9127456609
https://ebooknice.com/product/matematik-5000-kurs-2c-larobok-23848312

ebooknice.com
(Ebook) SAT II Success MATH 1C and 2C 2002 (Peterson's SAT
II Success) by Peterson's ISBN 9780768906677, 0768906679

https://ebooknice.com/product/sat-ii-success-
math-1c-and-2c-2002-peterson-s-sat-ii-success-1722018

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Master SAT II Math 1c and 2c 4th ed (Arco Master

the SAT Subject Test: Math Levels 1 & 2) by Arco ISBN
9780768923049, 0768923042
https://ebooknice.com/product/master-sat-ii-math-1c-and-2c-4th-ed-
arco-master-the-sat-subject-test-math-levels-1-2-2326094

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Cambridge IGCSE and O Level History Workbook 2C -

Depth Study: the United States, 1919-41 2nd Edition by
Benjamin Harrison ISBN 9781398375147, 9781398375048,
1398375144, 1398375047
https://ebooknice.com/product/cambridge-igcse-and-o-level-history-
workbook-2c-depth-study-the-united-states-1919-41-2nd-edition-53538044

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Source Code Analytics with Roslyn and Javascript

Data Visualization by Unknown

https://ebooknice.com/product/source-code-analytics-with-roslyn-and-
javascript-data-visualization-55892642

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) C# Programming Yellow Book by Rob Miles

https://ebooknice.com/product/c-programming-yellow-book-49184392

ebooknice.com
Begin to Code with JavaScript

Rob Miles
BEGIN TO CODE WITH JAVASCRIPT

Published with the authorization of Microsoft Corporation by:

Pearson Education, Inc.

Copyright © 2022 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission

must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction,
storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information
regarding permissions, request forms, and the appropriate contacts within the
Pearson Education Global Rights & Permissions Department, please visit
www.pearson.com/permissions

No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained
herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book,
the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is
any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information
contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-13-687072-2

ISBN-10: 0-13-687072-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021941656

ScoutAutomatedPrintCode

TRADEMARKS

Microsoft and the trademarks listed at http://www.microsoft.com on the

“Trademarks” webpage are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All
other marks are property of their respective owners.
WARNING AND DISCLAIMER

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as
possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an
“as is” basis. The author, the publisher, and Microsoft Corporation shall have
neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss
or damages arising from the information contained in this book or from the use
of the programs accompanying it.

SPECIAL SALES

For information about buying this title in bulk quantities, or for special sales
opportunities (which may include electronic versions; custom cover designs; and
content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, or branding
interests), please contact our corporate sales department at
[email protected] or (800) 382-3419.

For government sales inquiries, please contact

[email protected].

For questions about sales outside the U.S., please contact

[email protected].

Editor-in-Chief

Brett Bartow

Executive Editor

Loretta Yates

Development Editor

Rick Kughen

Sponsoring Editor
Charvi Arora

Managing Editor

Sandra Schroeder

Senior Project Editor

Tracey Croom

Copy Editor

Rick Kughen

Indexer

James Minken

Proofreader

Scout Festa

Technical Editor

John E. Ray

Editorial Assistant

Cindy Teeters

Cover Designer

Twist Creative, Seattle

Compositor

Danielle Foster
Graphics

Danielle Foster
To Imogen
About the author

Rob Miles spent more than 30 years teaching programming at the

University of Hull in the United Kingdom. He now runs a company
promoting community uptake of computer technology. He’s a Microsoft
MVP with a passion for programming and creating new things. If he had
any spare time, he’d spend it writing even more code. He loves building
devices and then switching them on to see what they do. He reckons that
programming is the most creative thing you can learn how to do. He
claims to know a lot of really good jokes, but nobody has ever heard him
tell one. If you want an insight into the Wacky World™ of Rob Miles, you
can read his blog at www.robmiles.com and follow him on Twitter via
@RobMiles.
Contents at a glance

Part 1: The world of JavaScript

Chapter 1 Running JavaScript

Chapter 2 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

Chapter 3 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Part 2: Coding with JavaScript

Chapter 4 Working with data

Chapter 5 Making decisions in programs

Chapter 6 Repeating actions in programs

Chapter 7 Creating functions

Chapter 8 Storing data

Chapter 9 Objects

Part 3: Useful JavaScript

Chapter 10 Advanced JavaScript

Chapter 11 Creating applications

Chapter 12 Creating games

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: The world of JavaScript

1 Running JavaScript

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript origins

JavaScript and the web browser

Our first brush with JavaScript

Tools

Getting Git

Getting Visual Studio Code

Getting the sample files

Working on files with Visual Studio Code

What you have learned

2 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

HTML and the World Wide Web

Fetching web pages

What is HTML?

Display symbols

Lay out text in paragraphs

Create headings

Use preformatted text

Add comments to documents

Add images to web pages

The HTML document

Linking HTML documents

Making active web pages

Using a button

Reading input from a user

Display text output

Egg timer

Adding sound to the egg timer

Controlling audio playback

An image display program

What you have learned

3 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Putting on the style

Splashing some color

Work with fonts

Text alignment

Make a ticking clock

Create a ticking clock

Margins around text

Creating style classes

Formatting parts of a document using <div> and <span>

Cascading styles

Color highlighting using selectors

What you have learned

Part 2: Coding with JavaScript

4 Working with data

Computers as data processors

Programs as data processors

JavaScript as a data processor

Process data with expressions

Data and information

Variables in programs

JavaScript identifiers

Performing calculations

Whole numbers and real numbers

Real numbers and floating-point numbers

Creating random dice

Working with text

JavaScript string delimiters

Escape sequences in strings

Working with strings and numbers

Converting strings into numbers

Make an adding machine

Making applications

Calculating a pizza order

Converting between Fahrenheit and centigrade

Adding comments

Global and local variables

Global variables

What you have learned

5 Making decisions in programs

Boolean thinking

Boolean values in JavaScript

Boolean expressions

Logical operators

The if construction

Adding an else part

Use decisions to make an application

Build the user interface

Add the code

Using the switch construction

What you have learned

6 Repeating actions in programs

App development

Adding data attributes to HTML elements

Using an unordered list as a container

The JavaScript for loop

Work through collections using for-of

Building web pages from code

Deleting elements from a document

What you have learned

7 Creating functions

What makes a function?

Give information to functions

Arguments and parameters

Multiple parameters in a function

Using references as function arguments

Arrays of arguments

Returning values from function calls

Add error handling to an application

Local variables in JavaScript functions

What you have learned

8 Storing data

Collections of data

Ice Cream Sales

Creating an array

Processing data in an array

Build a user interface

Arrays as lookup tables

Creating fixed with layouts

What you have learned

9 Objects

Make a tiny contacts app

Prototype HTML

Prototype style sheet

Prototype JavaScript
Storing contact details

Finding contacts

Displaying contacts

Saving a contact

Finding a contact

Use an object to store contact details

Use an object in the Tiny Contacts program

Store data in JavaScript local storage

Use JSON to encode object data

Use property accessors

Use a data schema

Build HTML from a schema

Build a data object from a schema

Improving the user interface

Add “Super Search” to Tiny Contacts

What you have learned

Part 3: Useful JavaScript

10 Advanced JavaScript

Manage errors with exceptions

Catching exceptions

Class design

Fashion Shop application

Object-oriented design

Store data in a class hierarchy

Add a method to give an object a behavior

Overriding methods in subclasses

Static class members

Data storage

Build a user interface

Exploring the Fashion Shop application

What you have learned

11 Creating applications

Data analysis

Fashion Shop stock list

Fashion Shop data analysis

Work with array methods

Read the weather

Fetch data from a server

Node.js

Create a web server with Node.js

Node package manager

Deploying a Node.js server

What you have learned

12 Creating games

Use the HTML Canvas

Canvas coordinates

Computer art

Draw images on a canvas

Animate images

Control gameplay

Window events
Control object position with a keyboard

Use keydown and keyup events

Create game objects

Game sprites

The game object

Starting the game

Add a cheese sprite

Add a Cracker sprite

Add lots of crackers

Catch the crackers

Add sound

Adding scores

Add a killer tomato

Create timed sprites

Complete the game

Add a start screen

Start the game running

What you have learned

Index
Introduction

Programming is the most creative thing you can learn how to do. Why? If
you learn to paint, you can create pictures. If you learn to play the violin,
you can make music, but if you learn to program, you can create entirely
new experiences (and you can make pictures and music, too, if you want).
Once you’ve started on the programming path, there’s no limit to where
you can go. There are always new devices, technologies, and
marketplaces where you can use your programming skills.

Think of this book as your first step on a journey to programming

enlightenment. The best journeys are undertaken with a destination in
mind, and the destination of this journey is “usefulness.” By the end of
this book, you will have the skills and knowledge to write useful
programs and make them available to anyone in the world.

But first, a word of warning: I would not say that learning to write
programs is easy. This is for two reasons:

If I tell you that it’s easy, and you still can’t do it, you might feel bad about
this (and rather cross with me).

If I tell you it’s easy and you manage to do it, you might think that it isn’t
worth doing.

Learning to program is not easy. It’s a kind of difficult that you might not
have seen before. Programming is all about detail and sequencing. You
must learn how the computer does things and how to express what you
want it to do.

Imagine that you were lucky enough to be able to afford your own
personal chef. At the start, you would have to explain things like, “If it is
sunny outside, I like orange juice and a grapefruit for breakfast, but if it is
raining, I’d like a bowl of porridge and a big mug of coffee.” Occasionally,
your chef would make mistakes. Perhaps you would get a black coffee
rather than the latte that you wanted. However, over time, you would add
more detail to your instructions until your chef knew exactly what to do.

A computer is like a chef who doesn’t even know how to cook. Rather
than saying “make me a coffee,” you would have to say, “Take the brown
powder from the coffee bag and add it to hot water.” Then you would
have to explain how to make hot water and how you must be careful with
the kettle and so on. This is hard work.

It turns out that the key to success as a programmer is much the same as
for many other endeavors. To become a world-renowned violin player,
you will have to practice a lot. The same is true for programming. You
must spend a lot of time working on your programs to acquire code-
writing skills. However, the good news is that just as a violin player really
enjoys making the instrument sing, making a computer do exactly what
you want turns out to be a very rewarding experience. It gets even more
enjoyable when you see other people using programs that you’ve written
and finding them useful and fun to use.

How this book fits together

I’ve organized this book in three parts. Each part builds on the previous
one with the aim of turning you into a successful programmer. We start
off discovering the environment in which JavaScript programs run. Then
we learn the fundamentals of programming and we finish by making
some properly useful (and fun) programs.

Part 1: The world of JavaScript

The first part gets you started. You’ll discover the environment in which
JavaScript programs run and learn how to create web pages containing
JavaScript programs.

Part 2: Coding with JavaScript

Part 2 describes the features of the JavaScript that you use to create
programs that work on data. You will pick up some fundamental
programming skills that apply to a wide range of other languages and
that get you thinking about what it is that programs actually do. You’ll
find out how to break large programs into smaller elements and how you
can create custom data types that reflect the specific problem being
solved.

Part 3: Useful JavaScript

Now that you can make JavaScript programs, it’s time to have some fun
with them. You’ll discover how to create good-looking applications, learn
how to make programs that are secure and reliable, and finish off with a
bit of game development.

How you will learn

In each chapter, I will tell you a bit more about programming. I’ll show
you how to do something, and then I’ll invite you to make something of
your own by using what you’ve learned. You’ll never be more than a page
or so away from doing something or making something unique and
personal. After that, it’s up to you to make something amazing!

You can read the book straight through if you like, but you’ll learn much
more if you slow down and work with the practical parts along the way.
Like learning to ride a bicycle, you’ll learn by doing. You must put in the
time and practice to learn how to do it. But this book will give you the
knowledge and confidence to try your hand at programming, and it will
also be around to help you if your programming doesn’t turn out as you
expected. Here are some elements in the book that will help you learn by
doing:

MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN

Yes, the best way to learn things is by doing, so you’ll find “Make
Something Happen” elements throughout the text. These elements offer
ways for you to practice your programming skills. Each starts with an
example and then introduces some steps you can try on your own.
Everything you create will run on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

CODE ANALYSIS

A great way to learn how to program is by looking at code written by

others and working out what it does (and sometimes why it doesn’t do
what it should). The book contains more than 150 sample programs for
you to look at. In this book’s “Code Analysis” challenges, you’ll use your
deductive skills to figure out the behavior of a program, fix bugs, and
suggest improvements.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG

If you don’t already know that programs can fail, you’ll learn this hard
lesson soon after you begin writing your first program. To help you deal
with this in advance, I’ve included “What Could Go Wrong” elements,
which anticipate problems you might have and provide solutions to those
problems. For example, when I introduce something new, I’ll sometimes
spend some time considering how it can fail and what you need to worry
about when you use the new feature.
PROGRAMMER’S POINTS

I’ve spent a lot of time teaching programming, but I’ve also written many
programs and sold a few to paying customers. I’ve learned some things
the hard way that I really wish I’d known at the start. The aim of
“Programmer’s Points” is to give you this information up front so that you
can start taking a professional view of software development as you learn
how to do it.

“Programmer’s Points” cover a wide range of issues, from programming,

to people, and to philosophy. I strongly advise you to read and absorb
these points carefully—they can save you a lot of time in the future!

What you will need

You’ll need a computer and some software to work with the programs in
this book. I’m afraid I can’t provide you with a computer, but in the first
chapter, you’ll find out how you can get started with nothing more than a
computer and a web browser. Later, you’ll discover how to use the Visual
Studio Code editor to create JavaScript programs.

Using a PC or laptop

You can use Windows, macOS, or Linux to create and run the programs in
the text. Your PC doesn’t have to be particularly powerful, but these are
the minimum specifications I’d recommend:

A 1 GHz or faster processor, preferably an Intel i5 or better.

At least 4 gigabytes (GB) of memory (RAM), but preferably 8 GB or
more.
256 GB hard drive space. (The JavaScript frameworks and Visual
Studio Code installations take about 1 GB of hard drive space.)
There are no specific requirements for the graphics display, although a
higher-resolution screen will enable you to see more when writing your
programs.

Using a mobile device

You can run JavaScript programs on a mobile phone or tablet by visiting

the web pages in which the programs are held. There are also some
applications that can be used to create and run JavaScript programs, but
my experience has been that a laptop or desktop computer is a better
place to work.

Using a Raspberry Pi

If you want to get started in the most inexpensive way possible, you can
use a Raspberry Pi running the Raspbian operating system. This has a
Chromium-compatible browser and is also capable of running Visual
Studio Code.

Downloads

In every chapter in this book, I’ll demonstrate and explain programs that
teach you how to begin to program—and you can then use that code to
create programs of your own. I’ve made a few video walkthroughs for
some crucial tasks. The book text will contain screenshots that you can
use, but these can go out of date. Follow the links to the walkthroughs to
get the latest steps to follow. You can download the book’s sample code
and video walkthroughs from the following page:

MicrosoftPressStore.com/BeginCodeJavaScript/downloads

Follow the instructions you’ll find in Chapter 1 to install the sample

programs and code. You’ll discover how to use GitHub to make your own
copy of the sample programs. You can then use GitHub to publish
JavaScript-enabled web pages for anyone in the world to view. You will
need to connect to the Internet and create a free GitHub account to do
this. You can browse the GitHub site and all the examples here:

www.begintocodewithjavascript.com

Video walkthroughs

You can also find the walkthroughs here:

https://bit.ly/3wEn6zX

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Mary for the cups of tea and Immy for the distraction.

Errata, updates, and book support

We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its
companion content. You can access updates to this book—in the form of a
list of submitted errata and their related corrections—at

MicrosoftPressStore.com/BeginCodeJavaScript/errata

If you discover an error not already listed, please submit it to us at the

same page.

For additional book support and information, please visit

http://www.MicrosoftPressStore.com/Support

Please note that product support for Microsoft software and hardware is
not offered through the previous addresses. For help with Microsoft
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
 “It answers very well to begin with; but I have a regular
locomotive and two cars in process of building, and I shall have
them on the track this fall.”
“Is it a big locomotive?” I asked, curiously.
“No, it’s a small one; and it will be the prettiest plaything you
ever saw. I’m determined that the Toppleton Institute shall be the
most popular one in the country.”
“I suppose Colonel Wimpleton will do something to offset this
movement on your part,” I suggested.
“What can he do?” asked the major, anxiously. “Have you heard
of anything?”
“No, sir. I only know they feel very bad about the Lake Shore
Railroad over there.”
“They will feel worse before we get through with it,” replied the
magnate, shaking his head. “What can they do? They can’t build a
railroad, the country is so rough. We can keep ahead of them now.
But I want that dummy in motion. You must run it every half hour
for the rest of the day between Middleport and Spangleport. Carry
everybody who wishes to ride. I want the Centreport people to see
it, and to know that we are alive on this side.”
“Will the students be with me?” I inquired.
“This afternoon, when they are dismissed from the school-room,
they will be. I will send you a conductor. Let me see; Higgins is too
sick to study, and just sick enough to play. He shall run with you.
Now keep her going, as though you meant business.”
“I will, sir; I will put her through by daylight,” I replied, as I left
the library.
 CHAPTER XX.
THE BEAUTIFUL PASSENGER.

I found the dummy just as I had left it on the preceding day. I

kindled a fire in the furnace, rubbed down the machinery, filled
up the water tank, and took on a supply of coal, which was the kind
of fuel intended to be used under the boiler. I assure my
sympathetic reader that I felt a real pleasure in the discharge of
these duties, and in the consciousness that I was actually the master
of the machine. Though my taste was rather inclined towards the
engine of a steamer, I was more than satisfied with my present
position, and deemed myself the luckiest dog in the world.
Higgins, the invalid student, who was to officiate as conductor,
stood by and watched all my movements with the most intense
interest. He looked like a clever fellow, and I proceeded to make
friends with him in due form, by declaring that I was sorry he was
sick.
“I’m not sorry,” said he with a grin. “I’m rather glad I’m sick. In
fact, I’m not very sick.”
“Well, I thought you were; the major said so; at least he said you
were too sick to study, and just sick enough to play.”
“Did he say that?”
“He did.”
“Well, he knows a thing or two,” laughed Higgins. “My mother
thinks it makes my head ache to study; and in fact it does when the
lessons are hard.”
“I dare say. Are they hard to-day?” I asked.
 “Not so very hard; but, to tell the truth, I thought there was to
be some fun going on here and I wanted to be on hand. My mother
wrote to the principal that she did not wish me to study very hard,
for something ailed my head.”
“I’m afraid the jar of the dummy will hurt your head,” I
suggested.
“Oh, no, it won’t,” protested the candid Higgins. “It feels better
now than it did this morning; in fact, it always feels better after
school begins.”
“But I’m really afraid it will injure you to ride on the dummy, with
all the excitement of the highly responsible position of conductor,” I
added, gravely. “I think I had better mention the matter to Major
Toppleton when I see him.”
“Oh, no; don’t do that,” pleaded Higgins, plaintively. “Between
you and me and the smoke-stack of the dummy, I am as well as you
are.”
“Precisely so; and I think the major understands your malady, if
the principal does not.”
“Don’t say a word this time, and I won’t ‘soger’ any more.”
“It’s none of my business, Higgins, but you are sawing off your
own nose, and playing the trick upon yourself. I would be a man and
face the music like one, if I were you.”
“I will face the music if you won’t say anything.”
“All ready, Mr. Conductor!” I shouted, when I had steam enough.
“All aboard!” yelled Higgins, rather glad to change the subject
when he found that I did not appreciate his deception.
I ran the dummy out of the house, and stopped her near the
head of the steamboat wharf. The car was still so great a novelty
that many people gathered around to examine it. The cushions were
now well dried, and though the cloth had suffered somewhat from
the effects of the bath, it looked very nice inside of her.
“Have you a watch, Higgins?” I asked of the gentlemanly
conductor.
“Yes,” replied he, producing a small gold one.
“We will leave Middleport on the hour, and Spangleport on the
half hour,” I added. “I wish I had a watch.”
 “Why don’t you have one?”
“I’m not a rich man’s son, and I can’t afford to have such
playthings. But I suppose I must get one, if I run on this dummy.”
“I’ll lend you mine for to-day, Wolf.”
“Thank you. I want to time the running, so as to know where we
are,” I answered, taking the watch, and attaching the chain to my
vest. “It is nearly twelve o’clock, and we will start soon.”
“All aboard for Spangleport!” screamed Higgins, as though the
announcement was intended for the people on the other side of the
lake.
“Folks will understand that nothing ails your lungs, Higgins,
whatever is the matter with your head,” I added, gently, to the
zealous conductor. “I wouldn’t yell so. Boys always make fools of
themselves by hallooing when there isn’t the least need of it.”
Higgins, in a milder tone, invited the ladies and gentlemen who
were inspecting the car to step in and make the excursion to
Spangleport, promising that they should return in just fifty minutes.
Quite a number of them accepted the invitation; and I was about to
start, when I saw a very beautiful young lady hastening towards us.
She was elegantly dressed, and her movements were as graceful as
those of a fawn. The “gentlemanly conductor” rang the bell for the
engine to start, and the young lady, hearing it, made a motion with
her sunshade for us to wait for her. I was too happy to find she was
to be a passenger in the car to start without her, in spite of my
laudable ambition to be “on time.”
The moment Higgins saw her, he jumped off the platform, took
off his cap, bowed and scraped like a French dancing-master, and
helped her up the steps. There was a glass window in the partition
between the engine-room and the passenger compartment, for
which at that moment I felt extremely grateful to the builder, for it
enabled me to obtain an occasional glance at the beautiful young
lady. I beg leave to say that this unwonted enthusiasm on my part
was as surprising to myself as it will be to my readers, for I had
hardly ever looked at any person of the feminine persuasion before,
except my mother and sisters. I had certainly never seen any lady
who attracted me so strongly, or for whom I felt so great an
admiration. She was not more than fifteen or sixteen years of age;
but she wore a long dress, and had a mature bearing.
Higgins conducted her to a seat, and she took possession of it as
gracefully as though she had been schooled in the polite art for a
whole lifetime. I could not help gazing at her, and I envied Higgins
the rapture of being permitted to speak to her. She looked around,
and bowed to several persons in the car, with the sweetest smile
that ever lighted up a young lady’s face. I was wholly absorbed in
gazing at her, and actually forgot that I was the young engineer of
the Lake Shore Railroad, till the sharp snap of the bell brought me to
my senses, and assured me that Higgins was not so fascinated as I
was.
I was a minute behind time, and I let on the steam to make it
up. I was obliged to turn my back on the beautiful being in the car,
and look out for “breakers ahead” through the door and windows in
the end of the engine-room; but I had the pleasing satisfaction of
thinking that in running backwards from Spangleport I should face
the other way.
What a fool I was! Of course I was. A young man always has a
time to be a fool, just as he has to take the measles, though he
seldom has it so young as I did. I did not know who the young lady
was, and I did not crave any other privilege than that of simply
looking at her, just as I should at a pretty picture. If she had fallen
overboard, I should certainly have jumped in after her. If she had
been in the claws of a lion, I should certainly have smitten the lion.
If she had been in the upper story of a house on fire, I should
certainly have run the risk of being singed for her sake. But she did
not fall overboard, or into the claws of a lion, and she was not in a
burning house; and, provoking as it was, I could not do anything for
her, except turn my back to her,—and I was not sure that this was
not the most agreeable service I could render her,—and run the
dummy at its highest speed.
I could not help seeing the beautiful young lady even through the
back of my head; and I am sorry to say that I forgot to look at my
watch, when we passed Ruggles’s barn and the Grass Brook bridge,
as I had intended; and at a quarter past twelve the dummy sizzled
into Spangleport, shivering like an over-driven horse. I had the self-
possession, however, to stop her when she got there; but I have
since wondered that, under the circumstances, I did not run her into
the lake, or over the hill to Grass Springs. I had made the distance in
just fourteen minutes.
The passengers got out of the car, and for a time I lost sight of
the elegant young lady. Higgins came round to me, and declared
that we had made a “bully trip.” I was entirely of his opinion; but I
was not willing to confess that a certain absentmindedness had
induced me to run the machine so as to gain five minutes, and make
up one. The conductor left me, and I fancied that he had gone to
find the interesting person who had fascinated me, and with whom
he seemed to be acquainted.
“Will you allow me to get in there and see the machinery?” said a
silvery voice, while I was rubbing up the works.
I turned, and my face felt as though all the steam in the boiler
had been discharged upon it when I discovered that the speaker was
no other than the bewitching being who was uppermost in my
thoughts.
“Certainly,” I replied, leaping to the ground, and endeavoring to
imitate the polite gyrations of the gentlemanly conductor.
“Thank you, Mr. Wolf,” added she, with the sweetest of smiles.
Mr. Wolf! Involuntarily my head went up, and I felt prouder of the
handle to my name then when the mighty major himself had applied
it.
“I’m afraid you will find the engine-room a very dirty and greasy
place,” I had the courage to suggest, flustered as I was by having
the beautiful girl speak to me—actually speak to me!
“Oh, never mind! I have on my old clothes.”
If these were her old clothes, I wondered what her best were.
“I suppose you don’t know me, Mr. Wolf; but I have heard a
great deal about the young engineer, and I assure you I am
delighted to see you,” she added, with a kind of roguish look, which
made me feel just as though I was “going up.” “I am Grace
Toppleton.”
 The daughter of the major! I had heard what a pretty, gentle,
amiable girl she was, and I was positively sure that the reports did
not belie her.
“I have often heard of you, though I never had the pleasure of
seeing you before,” I replied, as gallantly as my flustered state of
mind would permit.
Still imitating the gentlemanly conductor, I took her gloved hand,
and attempted to help her up the high step of the engine-room. I
felt, at this particular moment, just as though I was in the seventh
heaven. As the elegant young lady was about to step up, a rude
grasp was laid on my shoulder; so rude that Miss Grace lost her
foothold on the step, and was thrown back upon the ground.
Turning round, I discovered that my rough assailant was Captain
Synders, the constable of Centreport. He was attended by Colonel
Wimpleton and the skipper of the canal boat which had been blown
up. To my astonishment, Miss Grace leaped upon the dummy
without my help, and I was held back by the savage grasp of the
officer. My blissful dream had suddenly been disturbed, and I was
mad. The envious Centreporters had chosen the moment of my
greatest joy to pounce upon me.
THE VISITORS FROM CENTREPORT.—Page 226.
 CHAPTER XXI.
SOME TALK WITH COLONEL WIMPLETON.

I was very intent upon explaining to Miss Grace Toppleton the

mysteries of the dummy engine, and I was not pleased to have
the agreeable interview broken off. I was vexed, annoyed, and
disconcerted. The beautiful young lady looked at me, and I thought I
could see the indications of sympathy upon her face.
“If you will excuse me a moment, Miss Toppleton, I will show you
the engine,” I said to her, with all the politeness of which my nature
was capable.
“I guess not,” added Captain Synders, with a coarse grin, as
though he had evil intentions in regard to me.
“If you will let me, Mr. Wolf, I want to ride back in the engine-
room, and see the machinery work,” replied she, in her silvery tones.
“I guess not,” repeated Captain Synders; and I turned my
attention from her to him.
I could not conceive why Colonel Wimpleton and his odious
associate had chosen to come down upon me at Spangleport, rather
than Middleport, unless it was because their appearance would make
less excitement. The boat in which they had come lay at the wharf,
and they must have started long before the dummy left Middleport.
Possibly they expected to interrupt the trips of the engine, and have
it left five miles from its headquarters without an engineer.
Colonel Wimpleton had with him Captain Synders, the constable.
It had not yet occurred to me that I should actually be arrested, and
held to answer for the destruction of the honest skipper’s canal boat,
though the appearance of the officer had suggested the idea to me.
They could not arrest me without including Waddie in the warrant,
for he had confessed his agency in the mischief. I did not know of
any way by which I could be punished without involving the scion of
the great house on the other side.
“What do you wish with me?” I asked, in a very ill-natured tone;
for I beg to remind the reader that I am human, and that Miss
Toppleton occupied the engine-room of the car.
Captain Synders glanced at the colonel, as though he expected
him to do the talking, and that distinguished gentleman looked down
upon me with unutterable severity. The honest skipper did not
appear to have much sympathy with his companions, and looked
very pleasant for a man who had experienced so heavy a loss as
that of his canal boat.
“Wolf!” said the colonel, in stern and lofty accents.
“Sir!” I replied, with a dignity becoming the engineer of the Lake
Shore Railroad.
“We have been looking for you,” he added, glancing at the
constable, as if to direct my attention to him.
“You have been lucky enough to find me, sir. I wish to say, sir,
that the car starts for Middleport at half-past twelve, and therefore I
have only ten minutes to spare,” I replied, consulting Higgins’s gold
watch, the appearance of which, I think, produced a sensation in the
minds of my visitors.
“Humph! I think you will wait my pleasure.”
“That will depend somewhat upon the length of time your
pleasure demands my presence. Will you please to tell me what you
want of me?”
“Where is your father, Wolf?”
“At Middleport, sir.”
“What is he doing there?”
“He is at work, sir.”
Colonel Wimpleton looked as though he wanted to swear; for I
am sorry to say this influential man sometimes indulged in the
wicked habit of using profane language. It did not seem quite proper
that the menial, whom he had discharged as a punishment, should
find work so soon.
 “What is he doing?” demanded the magnate of Centreport, biting
his lips to conceal his vexation.
“You were so kind as to make an opening for him, sir, by hiring
away Major Toppleton’s engineer, and my father has taken his place,
at the same wages—eighty dollars a month—as you pay your new
engineer.”
The great man stamped his foot with rage, and uttered an
expression with which I cannot soil my paper. As wicked, tyrannical,
overbearing men often do, he had overreached himself in his anxiety
to strike my father. If it was unchristian for me to rejoice in his
discomfiture, I could not help it, and I did so most heartily.
“I have been to see him about your conduct,” continued the
colonel, when his wrath would let him speak again. “I want to know
what he is going to do about paying his share of the loss of the
canal boat which you and Waddie blew up?”
“I can speak for him, sir, if that is all you want. He is not going to
pay the first cent of it,” I replied.
“Here is the captain of the boat, and he wants to know what you
are going to do about it,” added the colonel, trying to enjoy the
confusion which he thought I ought to feel in view of such a
demand.
“Yes, I want to know who is going to pay for the mischief,” said
the honest skipper; but as he already knew, he did not put much
heart into the words, and actually chuckled as he uttered them.
“Captain,” I continued, turning to the master of the canal boat, “I
say to you, as I have said to others, that I had nothing whatever to
do with blowing up your boat, and I did not know anything about it
till the explosion took place. That is all I have to say.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” replied the skipper.
“I do,” interposed the colonel. “He has confessed that he had
hold of the string when the boat blew up.”
I took the trouble to explain to the honest skipper that Waddie
had asked me to pull in his kite line; that I had picked it up, but,
fearing some trick, had done nothing with it; and that Waddie had
pulled the string himself.
 “All aboard for Middleport!” shouted Higgins, as moderately this
time as a gentlemanly conductor should speak.
“My time is nearly up, sir,” I added to the colonel. “If you have
any further business with me, please to state it as quickly as
possible.”
“You must go over to Centreport with me, and arrange this
business,” replied the magnate, gruffly.
“No, sir; I cannot do that.”
“Then Captain Synders must arrest you.”
“Very well, sir; let him do so. I am willing to go to jail and stand
trial on the blowing up. Have you made a complaint against me?” I
asked of the honest skipper.
He was too candid to tell a lie, and he made me no answer.
“Have you a warrant for my arrest?” I demanded of Captain
Synders.
“I can take you without a warrant,” growled the constable.
“Do so, then. If you wish to arrest me, I will submit.”
My friends may think I was putting a very bold face upon the
matter, but I candidly admit that I should have been glad to have
the charge against me investigated; though I was very certain no
steps would be taken in that direction. It is possible Colonel
Wimpleton believed that I had been concerned with his hopeful in
the blowing up of the canal boat; yet the guilt of his son was settled,
and, if convicted, some stupid judge might sentence us both to the
penitentiary, for the case would have to go to the shire town of the
county, out of the reach of the great man’s influence, for trial.
My father had told me that, at the interview with the colonel in
the night, the latter had threatened him with prosecution for abusing
his son; but when my father suggested that Waddie had broken into
his house in the night time, it was plain enough that the young
gentleman was liable to a turn in the state prison. Waddie’s crimes
and mistakes continually stood in the way of his taking his revenge.
I considered myself fully protected in the same manner.
“Captain Synders, if you are going to arrest me, please to do it at
once,” I added, as the lady passengers began to get into the car, and
some of the gentlemen came up to the spot where I stood.
 “What’s the row?” asked Higgins.
“These gentlemen from the other side talk of taking me up for
the mischief to that canal boat. If they do so, Higgins, I want you to
go to my father, and tell him about it. If I mistake not, Waddie
Wimpleton will be arrested before night for breaking into our house.”
“I’ll do it!” exclaimed the enthusiastic conductor.
“Arrest Waddie!” ejaculated the colonel, gnashing his teeth with
rage.
It was mortifying to the great man to find that he had come to
the end of his rope; that even his power to annoy and persecute his
inferiors had a limit.
“All aboard!” repeated Higgins.
“If you are going to arrest me, Captain Synders, now is your
time,” I added.
The people who had gathered around us began to laugh and
enjoy the scene, and, being mostly Middleporters, they had no
particular sympathy for the colonel.
“Wolf, we shall meet again,” said the great man, sullenly, as he
turned upon his heel, and, followed by his companions, walked
rapidly down to the wharf, where his boat lay.
Even while I knew his power, and felt that he could annoy our
family, and perhaps ruin us, I was quite ready to meet him again.
Waddie’s indiscretions stood between me and his wrath for the
present, but his time might come. I leaped into the engine-room of
the dummy, where Miss Toppleton had stood listening to our
conversation.
“Mr. Wolf, I think you are real smart,” said she, with a sweet
smile of approbation.
“I thank you, Miss Toppleton, for your good opinion. Colonel
Wimpleton is very hard upon me just now.”
“I heard father tell about it. I think that Colonel Wimpleton is a
real wicked man; and I only wonder that he and father were good
friends for so many years.”
“I am all ready to start now,” I added. “I wish I had better
accommodations for you.”
“Oh, this is very nice!” exclaimed she.
 I opened the valve, and let on the steam.
“What did you do then?” she asked, pointing to the handle of the
valve.
“I let on the steam;” and then I gave her a full description of the
engine, which was hardly finished when we came in sight of
Middleport.
I found it a delightful task to expatiate on my favorite theme to
such a beautiful and interested listener, and I pointed out the
cylinder wherein the piston worked, the connecting rod which moved
the crank, and showed her how the valves which admitted the steam
to the cylinder were worked. I flattered myself, after the lesson I had
given her, that she was almost competent to run the dummy herself.
“I think it is real nice to ride in here, and see the machinery
move,” said she.
“So do I; and I enjoy it very much; more just now, I fear, than I
ever shall again.”
“Why so?” she asked, innocently.
I was not quite bold enough to explain the principal reason, and
so I replied that it was a new thing to me.
“I hope you will let me ride with you again, some time,” she
added.
“With the greatest pleasure,” I replied. “Whenever you please.”
We ran into Middleport, and Miss Toppleton thanked me very
prettily for my kindness in showing her about the engine; and I
really wished I had it to do over again. By this time the students
were turned out of school, and all of them gathered around the
dummy, anxious to begin the afternoon’s fun. I had brought over my
dinner, and I ate it before the next trip. At one o’clock I was ready to
start for Spangleport again.
 CHAPTER XXII.
THE CONSTRUCTION TRAIN.

I have been so busy with the history of our family affairs, and the
incidents which sent me over to Middleport, that I have not had
much to say about the Lake Shore Railroad; but before I have done
with the subject, I shall fully describe the road, and explain the
operations of the company. Only a small portion of the line had yet
been built, and the dummy was but a temporary substitute for more
complete rolling stock. Major Toppleton intended to have a charter
for the road, to be obtained at the next session of the legislature,
and to continue it to Ucayga. Although it was at the present time a
mere plaything for the students, it was designed to be a useful
institution, and to build up Middleport immensely in the end.
Just as I was about to start on the one o’clock trip, Major
Toppleton presented himself. The car was filled with students,
though a number of ladies and gentlemen had come down to the
station to have a ride in the dummy. The major immediately ordered
the boys to evacuate the premises, which they did with some
grumblings, amounting almost to rebellion. The persons waiting
were invited to get in, and I started for Spangleport with a less noisy
crowd than I had anticipated. As we went off, I heard the major call
the students together, and I concluded that he had some definite
plan to carry out.
On my return, I found the boys had loaded up the two platform
cars with rails and sleepers, and they were attached to the dummy
as soon as she arrived. Several mechanics were standing by, and it
was evident that a piece of work was to be done that day, instead of
play.
“Now, Wolf, we will run a construction train on this trip,” said
Major Toppleton, as he took his place at my side on the dummy, and
directed the students and the mechanics to load themselves into the
passenger apartment and on the cars.
“I think we need a little more construction at Spangleport, sir,” I
suggested.
“Why, what’s the matter?”
“I don’t like to run backwards, sir, on the down trips.”
“But a turn-table will cost too much for the short time we shall
make Spangleport a terminus. We will build one at Grass Springs, for
that will be as far as we shall run the road this season.”
“We need not build a turn-table, sir,” I added. “We can turn the
dummy on switches.”
“How is that?” inquired the major.
“It will take three switches to turn her. First run a track round a
curve to the right, until it comes to a right angle with the main line.
Then run another track on the reverse curve till it strikes the main
line again, a few rods from the point where the first track leaves it.”
“I don’t understand it.”
“I will explain it when we stop, sir. It will not take long to lay it
down, and when it is no longer wanted it can be taken up, and put
down in another place.”
At Spangleport, where we stopped, I made a diagram on a piece
of paper, to illustrate my plan; and here is a copy of my drawing.
The perpendicular lines are the main track. The dummy was to be
switched off at the lowest part of the diagram, and run on the curve
till it had passed a switch on the right. Then it was to be switched on
the upper curve, and run back till it passed the switch on the main
line, which being shifted, the car having been turned entirely round,
it runs back on the perpendicular lines between the curves.
 Major Toppleton was satisfied with the scheme, directed that the
switches should be brought up, and the work was commenced at
once by the mechanics. All the boys but two were employed in
laying down more track; but I am sorry to say they grumbled
fiercely, for they wanted to have some fun with the dummy. Higgins
was still to serve as conductor, and the other student who had been
excepted from hard labor was one of the regularly appointed
engineers of the road. His name was Faxon. He had some taste for
mechanics, and had distinguished himself in school by making a fine
diagram of the steam-engine on the blackboard. He was to run with
me on the dummy, and learn to manage the engine. I was directed
to post him up, as well as I could, and to permit him to take an
active part in running the machine.
I was not particularly pleased with the idea of an apprentice in
the engine-room with me, for if the fellow had any “gumption” he
would soon be able to take my place, and I might be discharged
whenever it was convenient. But a second thought assured me that
my fears were mean and unworthy; that I could never succeed in
making myself useful by keeping others in ignorance. The students
were sent to the Institute to learn, and the railroad was a part of
their means of instruction. I had no right to be selfish.
 We ran down to the wharf in Spangleport, for the road was built
half a mile beyond the village, when Higgins shouted, “All aboard for
Middleport!” We had quite a crowd of Spangleporters as passengers,
and we ran our trips regularly till five o’clock, to the great
gratification of the people of both places, when the gentlemanly
conductor declined to receive any more who expected to return, as
the half-past five car up would be a construction train. Mr. Higgins
talked very glibly and professionally by this time, and imitated all the
gentlemanly conductors he had ever seen.
Faxon was a very good fellow, though he cherished a bitter
antipathy against the Wimpletonians, and everything connected with
them. He was an ardent admirer of Major Toppleton, and particularly
of Major Toppleton’s eldest daughter, for which I did not like him any
the less, strange as it may appear after the developments of the last
chapter.
“I’ll tell you what it is, Wolf,” said he, as we were running up the
last trip, “this thing won’t go down with the fellows.”
“What?”
“All the fellows are mad because they had to work this
afternoon.”
“I thought they considered it fun to build the road.”
“They did before the dummy came; but now they want the fun of
the thing. They are all rich men’s sons, and they won’t stand it to
work like Irish laborers. I hope there won’t be any row.”
“Of course Major Toppleton knows what he is about.”
“The students don’t growl before him. They do it to the teachers,
who dare not say their souls are their own.”
“But the major told me the boys enjoyed the fun, and insisted
upon building the road themselves when he wanted to employ
laborers for the purpose.”
“That’s played out. I heard some of the fellows say they would
not work another day.”
“Some one ought to tell the major about this. He don’t want
them to work if they don’t like it,” I suggested.
“It was fine fun when we first began to dig, and lay rails, but we
have all got about enough of it.”
 “I will speak to the major about it.”
“Don’t say anything to-day,” interposed Faxon. “The students are
vexed because they were not allowed to have a good time this
afternoon; but the major is going to have a great picnic at Sandy
Shore next week, and he is in a hurry to have the road built to that
point—two miles beyond Spangleport.”
“There is only one mile more to build, and if the fellows stick to it
they will get it done.”
“But they say they won’t work another day,” replied Faxon.
Middleport was not paradise any more than Centreport. Boys
were just as foolish and just as willing to get into a scrape, on one
side as the other. The Toppletonians had insisted upon doing the
work of building the road, and then purposed to rebel because they
were required to do it. I had heard of the grand picnic which was to
take place on the occasion of the birthday of Miss Grace Toppleton.
The grove by the Sandy Shore could be reached most conveniently
by the railroad, and the major’s anxiety to have the rails laid to that
point had induced him to drive the work, instead of giving the
students a chance to have a good time with the dummy, as they had
desired to do while it was a new thing.
We ran into the engine-house, and some of the boys forced their
way into my quarters, in spite of my protest. I saw a couple of them
studying the machinery with deep interest. They asked me some
questions; and supposing they were only gratifying a reasonable
curiosity, I gave them all the information they needed, telling them
just how to manage the engine.
“Pooh! I can do that as well as anybody,” said Briscoe, as he
jumped down.
“Of course you can,” replied one of his companions.
“Don’t you think I could run her, Wolf?” asked Briscoe. “I am one
of the engineers of the road, and I ought to know how.”
“Probably you could after you had had some experience.”
They went away, and I wondered what they were thinking about.
It did not much matter, however, for I was satisfied that the major
would not permit them to run the engine till they had become
thoroughly competent to do so. I put out the fires in the dummy,
cleaned the machinery, and left her in readiness for use the next
morning. I then went to the mills; and, as my father had finished his
day’s work, we walked down to the wharf where my skiff lay. On the
way I told him about my interview with Colonel Wimpleton, and we
both enjoyed the great man’s confusion when he learned in what
manner he had punished my father.
“He will not arrest you, Wolf; you may depend upon that,” said
my father. “As the case now stands, we have the weather-gauge on
him, except in the matter of the mortgage. I am afraid I shall lose all
I have in the house. Mortimer has got back, but he hasn’t seen or
heard of Christy.”
“He may turn up yet.”
“He may, but I don’t depend much upon it. I have tried a little
here in Middleport to raise the money to pay off the mortgage; but
people here will not lend anything on real estate on the other side of
the lake.”
“Perhaps Major Toppleton will help you out,” I suggested.
“I don’t like to say anything to him about it. He has done well by
me, and I won’t ride a free horse to death; besides, I don’t want to
be in the power of either one of these rich men. I have had trouble
enough on the other side.”
I pulled across the lake, and we went into the house. My mother
looked anxiously at my father as he entered, and then at me. I
smiled, and she understood me. Father had not drunk a drop, and
she was happy. We never relished our supper any better than we did
that night, and I went to bed early, not a little surprised that we
heard nothing, during the evening, of Colonel Wimpleton and his
son.
The dummy was to make her first trip at eight o’clock, and I left
the house at half-past six, with my father, to cross the lake. When
we reached the wharf, I was utterly confounded to see the dummy
streaking it at the rate of twenty miles an hour along the opposite
shore of the lake. Something was wrong, for there was no one on
the other side who knew how to run the machine, unless it was
Faxon, and I was afraid the discontented Toppletonians were in
mischief. We embarked in the skiff, and I pulled over as quickly as I
had done the day before.
 CHAPTER XXIII.
OFF THE TRACK.

T he appearance of the dummy, going at full speed, filled me with

anxiety. I was sure that something was wrong, for I knew that
Major Toppleton was not stirring at that hour in the morning, and
that he could not have given any one permission to take out the car
without telling me of it. I hastened up to the engine-house; but it
was empty, and added nothing to my meagre stock of ideas on the
vexed subject. The dummy was gone, and that was all I knew about
it.
The Institute buildings were only a short distance from the
engine-house, and I next went there in search of information. The
students were engaged, in large numbers, in their sports. Indeed,
there were so many of them present that the suspicion I had
entertained that some of the boys had gone on a lark in the dummy
seemed to be disarmed. Still, a dozen or twenty of them would not
be missed in the crowd, and it was possible that this number were in
mischief, though I thought, if it were so, they had chosen a singular
time of day for it.
The students were rung up in the morning at six o’clock; but, by
a merciful provision of the governors of the Institute, the first hour
was devoted to play, so that those who were behind time cheated
themselves out of just so much sport. I was informed that only a few
neglected to get up when the bell rang; and I commend this
humane and cunning arrangement to other institutions troubled by
the matutinal tardiness of students. The morning is favorable to bold
schemes and active movements; and the more I thought of the
matter, the more anxious I became to know whose places would be
vacant at the breakfast table, at seven o’clock, when the bell rang
for the morning meal.
I inquired for Faxon, and soon found him making a “home run” in
a game of base ball. Before I had time to address him the breakfast
bell rang; and with a most surprising unanimity, all games were
instantly suspended—a fact which ought to convince humanitarian
educators that breakfast, dinner, and supper should immediately
follow play, if boys are to be taught habits of promptness. The
students rushed towards “Grub Hall,” as the dining-room was called;
but, though Faxon had a good appetite, I succeeded, with some
difficulty, in intercepting his headlong flight.
“What’s the row, Wolf?” demanded he, glancing at the open door
through which the boys were filing to the breakfast table, and
possibly fearing that the delay would involve an inferior piece of
beefsteak.
“Are any of the fellows missing?” I asked.
“Not that I know of; but we can tell at the table,” replied he.
“What’s up?”
“The dummy is gone,” I answered, mysteriously.
“Gone! Gone where?”
“I don’t know. I saw her streaking it down the road as if she had
been shot off.”
“Don’t say a word about it; but hold on here till I get my grub,
and see who is missing,” said he, rushing into the building.
I did not understand what Faxon purposed to do; but I was
willing to comply with the arrangement, in compassion for his
stomach, if for no other reason. I had feared that my associate on
the engine was concerned in the conspiracy to abstract the dummy,
for I did not think any one else would be able to manage it. I was
glad to find he had not engaged in the lark, and I wondered all the
more who had the audacity to play with the machine. I walked over
to a point on the Institute grounds which commanded a view of the
Lake Shore for some distance; but I could see nothing of the
dummy. Presently, Faxon, who had satisfied the cravings of his
hunger in a remarkably short time, came out of the building.
 “Briscoe and half a dozen other fellows are missing,” said he.
“Briscoe!” I exclaimed; for he was the fellow who had invaded my
quarters the night before, and declared he could handle the engine.
“He’s a first-rate fellow, in the main, and I hope he isn’t getting
into any scrape,” added Faxon, anxiously.
“I’m afraid he is. He is the fellow who has run away with the
dummy.”
“Don’t say a word. I have permission to be out an hour, and we
will see where they are. What can we do?”
“We can take one of the platform cars, and go after them.”
“Come along; but don’t say anything.”
We went to the engine-house, and lifted one of the platform cars
on the track. The Lake Shore Railroad, as I had found by running the
dummy, had a slight descent from Middleport to Spangleport. We
pushed the car, running behind it, till we had worked it up to a high
rate of speed, and then leaped upon the platform. The impetus thus
given to it kept it going for a mile, when the motive power was
applied again, as before. In this manner we ran three miles, without
making very hard work of it, and came in sight of the dummy.
“There she is!” exclaimed Faxon. “The fellows did not go a great
way in her.”
“No! but they went as far as they could,” I replied, as soon as I
had examined the situation of the car, which was not in motion when
we discovered it.
“How do you know?”
“She’s off the track.”
“That’s too bad!”
For my own part I was rather glad the enterprise of the runaways
had been nipped in the bud, for I had a professional contempt for
those who attempt to run an engine when they know nothing about
one. I only hoped the dummy and the boys were not injured. As we
approached nearer to the scene of the disaster, we saw the
conspirators hard at work trying to get the dummy on the track.
“What are you about, you spoonies!” shouted Faxon, as we
stopped the car close to the unfortunate dummy.
 “We are trying to get the thing on the track,” replied Briscoe, as
coolly as though he had done nothing wrong.
“How came she out here?” demanded Faxon.
“Oh, well, we were having a little fun with her.”
“You were missed at breakfast, and you will catch fits for this.”
“I suppose we shall; but we can’t help it now.”
“What did you meddle with her for, you spoonies, when you
didn’t know anything about her?” continued Faxon, indignantly.
“I know all about her, as well as you do, Faxon. You needn’t put
on airs because you helped run the thing,” retorted Briscoe.
“I should think you did know all about her; and that’s the reason
why you ran her off the track. You don’t know so much as you think
you do.”
“That may be, but I know more than you think I do.”
“What did you run her off for?”
“I suppose it is considered rather necessary to have rails for this
thing to run on,” replied Briscoe. “If you will look ahead of her, you
will see that the track is torn up for a quarter of a mile, and the rails
carried off.”
“Is that so?” added Faxon, walking out ahead of the dummy.
“That’s so, as you may see for yourself,” said Briscoe, following
us along the track.
“Who did it? That’s the next question,” asked Faxon, vexed, as
we all were, at the discovery.
“I don’t know; we didn’t,” answered Briscoe. “If the track hadn’t
been pulled up, we should have returned at breakfast time. What’s
to be done?”
“You must get back as quick as you can,” replied the benevolent
Faxon. “I won’t blow on you. Take that car, and make time for the
Institute.”
“You’re a good fellow, Faxon,” added Briscoe, with a smile.
“If I am, don’t you play this game again.”
“I won’t, again.”
“How did it work?” I inquired, wishing to hear the experience of
the runaways.
 “First rate. I had no trouble with it. She started when I pulled the
thing, and we made time on her coming down, you had better
believe.”
“I should think you did. I saw you putting her through by
daylight.”
“Edwards saw the track was gone, and told me of it. I shut off
steam, and put on the brakes; but I couldn’t fetch up soon enough
to keep from running off.”
“All I have to say is, that you are lucky to come out of it with a
whole skin,” I added, solemnly. “But hurry back as fast as you can,
or you will be in hot water.”
“I’m in hot water now, and I may as well be scalded with a quart
as a pint. I am willing to stay and help you put her on the track.”
“Don’t do it, Briscoe,” interposed Faxon. “You are one of the
directors, and if the major finds out you meddled with the dummy,
he will have you turned out of office. Rush back to the Institute, and
don’t let on.”
The runaways were willing to adopt this advice. There were half
a dozen of them, and as they could make easy work of pushing the
car back, they soon disappeared behind the trees.
“You won’t let on—will you, Wolf?” said Faxon, in a coaxing tone,
as soon as we were alone.
“I won’t volunteer to tell any stories out of school; but I shall not
tell any lies about it.”
“Don’t be squeamish. Briscoe is a good fellow, and one of the
directors. The major would break him if he heard of this thing.”
“Between you and me, I think he ought to be broken. Suppose
they had burst the boiler, and been wiped out themselves?”
“That’s all very pretty; but they didn’t burst the boiler, and were
not wiped out.”
“I’m at work for Major Toppleton. If he asks me any questions, I
shall tell him the truth.”
“Oh, come now!”
“But I don’t think he is likely to ask me any questions. There will
be a breeze when he finds out the track has been torn up, and there
will be fog enough with it to cover up those fellows.”
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebooknice.com