John Fitzgerald GB 04 Great Bra Read Online Free Page A

on Tom’s face. “What sports?” he asked. “The only athletics at the academy is one hour of calisthenics in the gymnasium on school days. And the gym is nothing but an old barn with a hardwood floor.”
    By this time Tom was almost wishing he had been born a Mormon or a Protestant. “You never told Papa and Mamma it was like a prison,” he said.
    “I’m no crybaby,” Sweyn said. And then he really poured salt in Tom’s wounds, “Thank the Lord this is my last year at the academy, because they only have the seventh and eighth grades. Next year I’ll be going to high school in Pennsylvania and living with some of Papa’s relatives. And while I’m enjoying myself there I promise I’ll think of you often, little brother, and of how you are suffering at the academy.”
    Tom felt so down in the dumps he didn’t even get angry at the “little brother” bit. Sweyn made the academy sound as if all the students had to wear striped-suits with numbers on them. He knew there was only one thing to do.
     
    26
     
    “No candy, no sports, no nothing,” he said. “I guess I’ll have to put my great brain to work on it and get some changes made at the academy.”
    “The only thing you will change will be yourself,” Sweyn said, “from an enrolled student to an expelled student. The Jesuit priests are plenty sharp because they have been dealing with boys for years. You won’t be able to put anything over on them.”
    Did that discourage Tom? Heck no. He was confident he could make life easier for himself and the other kids at the academy.
    A few minutes later Mr. Walters came into the coach. “Provo is the next stop,” he called out. “There will be a twenty-minute stopover for passengers to get something to eat. The dining room is located right next to the depot.”
    Sweyn stood up when the train stopped. “I’m, going to get a glass of milk and piece of pie in the dining room,” he said.
    “Go ahead,” Tom said. “I’m not hungry.”
    Tom wasn’t just twisting a Iamb’s tail trying to make it bark like a dog when he said he had to learn all about trains by the time he arrived in Salt Lake City. But how could he if he didn’t get to ride in the locomotive? He realized it was something every kid dreams about but only one in a million ever gets to do.
    He got off the train with Sweyn and walked up to where the locomotive was preparing to take on water and coal. He had seen many locomotives in Adenville but this was the first time it had entered his mind that they were things of beauty. The locomotive had the number 205 on the round brass plate on its nose, a shiny brass bell, a whistle and headlight, a blue steel belly, and gigantic
     
    27
     
    wheels. With smoke coming from the smokestack and steam escaping from the cylinders it was almost as if the locomotive was a living thing.
    Tom walked back and waited for Mr. Walters to come out of the stationmaster’s office.
    “Think they will ever have it so passengers can eat right on a train?” he asked.
    “It is coming, Tom,” the conductor said. “We already have sleeping cars on the main line invented by a man named Pullman. And a man named Fred Harvey is working on a dining car that will serve hot meals right on the train.”
    “You sure have taught me a lot about trains,” Tom said. “But I’ll never know all I should unless you fix it so I can ride in the locomotive from here to Salt Lake City.”
    ‘T can’t do that, Tom,” Mr. Walters said. “It is against regulations.”
    The conductor didn’t know it but he had walked right into Tom’s trap.
    “It is also against regulations to let card sharks operate on trains,” Tom said. “This Harrison fellow could have gone on cheating passengers for years if it hadn’t been for me. And you can report how these crooked decks of cards are marked at the factory so other conductors will know how to spot them. I figure the railroad owes me something for that.”
    Mr. Walters nodded. “When you