CHAPTER V.

"The Call of the City."


It was the "Call of the City", the true brother of that other curse of
humanity, the "Call of the Road", that had been heard by Joe and Jim.
For years previous to their unannounced departure they had felt its
subtle influence when they read about the grand city in the newspapers
which were occasionally found upon the right-of-way, having been thrown
there from the passing trains by passengers who had read them. The
"call" had also come to them while listening to the stories of adventure
among the wonderful palaces and the sodden slums which comprise every
city, which were told them by passing tramps as they stopped to rest,
to ask for employment, or more often to beg food at the section house.
But the strongest incentive of all was the hoboes, who as they passed by
aboard of freight trains, with their feet dangling out of open box car
doors or hanging to the mail and express cars of passenger trains, waved
friendly greetings to the lads, which they interpreted as a beckoning to
the city.

Except for the rare instances, when the railroad company transferred
their father to take charge of some other section, or the few times when
they had made trips to the nearest villages, which were small and had
but few inhabitants, the McDonald boys had never seen another world
except the one whose boundaries melted into the endless, undulating
prairie around their home.