"Yes, sir; he'll talk a bit with me, but he's as close-mouthed a chap
as you'll find in the state, sir, unless it's one of them deef and
dummies."
I made another unsuccessful attempt to cultivate the acquaintance of my
charge.
"You've got a day's job before you if you get him to open his head,"
said Wainwright, amused at the failure of my efforts as an infant-
charmer.
"What has he been talking about?" I inquired, somewhat disgusted.
"The train," chuckled Wainwright. "Blamed if I think he's seen anything
else since he started."
"The train?"
"Yes; the one we come on. He's been talking about it, and wondering
what I'd do with it and without it till I reckon we've covered pretty
near everything that could happen to a fellow with a train or without
one."
"Is that the only subject of interest?"
"Well, he did go so far as to say that the milk was different here, and
that he wanted a kind of cake we didn't get at dinner."
I attacked the young man on his weak point, and got some brief answers
in reply to my remarks on the attractiveness of locomotives and the
virtues of cars. But as any venture away from the important subject was
met with the silence of the clam, I had at last to give up with a wild
desire to shake the young man until some more satisfactory idea should
come uppermost.
As darkness came on, the apprehensions of danger which had made no
impression on me by daylight, began to settle strongly on my spirits.
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