CHAPTER III


According to Mrs. O'Callaghan's plans, the moving was accomplished the
next day. There was but one load of household goods, so that the two
teams of their kind neighbor made only one trip, but that load, with the
seven boys and their mother, filled the shanty by the tracks to
overflowing. The little boys immediately upon their arrival had been all
eyes for the trains, and, failing them, the freight cars. And they had
reluctantly promised never to ascend the iron freight car ladders when
they had been in their new home only one hour.

"Whin you're dailin' with b'ys take 'em in toime," was the widow's
motto. "What's the use of lettin' 'em climb up and fall down, and maybe
break their legs or arms, and then take their promise? Sure, and I'll
take it before the harm's done, so I will."

Such tooting the delighted little fellows had never heard. "Barney!"
whispered Tommie, in the middle of the night, with a nudge. "Barney!
there's another of 'em!"

"And listen to the bell on it," returned Barney. "Ain't you glad we
moved?"

And then they fell asleep to wake and repeat the conversation a little
later. Larry was the only one who slept the night through. The rest were
waked so many times by the unaccustomed noise that one night seemed like
twenty.