He'll say: 'I
ain't never had no chance in life, I ain't. The world ain't never used
me right.' ... Yes, folks is funny people."
After this soliloquy there occurred a brief silence in the smoking
room, and presently the train boy took up his basket and went upon his
way.
"You say they take on the lunches at Covin now?" one of the passengers
asked of the man in the electric-blue cap.
"Yes."
"What's become of old man Whitney, over to Fayetteville?"
"They used to git lunches off of him," replied the other, "but the old
man wasn't none too dependable. Now and then he'd oversleep, and folks
on the 5 A.M. out of Columbus was like to starve for breakfast."
"Right smart shock-headed boy the old man's got," put in another. "The
old man gives 'im anything he wants. He wanted a motorcycle, and the old
man give 'im one. Then he wanted one of them hot-candy machines; they
cost about two hundred and fifty dollars, but the old man give it to 'im
just the same."
"The kid went to San Francisco with it, didn't he?" asked the man with
the electric-blue cap.
"He started to go there," replied the former speaker, "but he only got
as fur as Little Rock; then he come on back home, and the old man bought
'im a wireless-telegraph plant. Yeaup! That boy gets messages right outa
the air--from Washington, D.
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