Tip Top Weekly No. 118: Frank Merriwell, Engine Wiper — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— “Oh, something lively—some happy song,’? she answered, still laughing through. her tears. So they sang one. of the late popular . songs, but the voices of both were uncer- tain, and it was pathetic to witness the affection and happiness in the boy’s eyes when he looked at his sister. In the very middle of the song the girl broke down completely and. stopped. “Oh! she exclaimed; Somehow my heart is so full that the words will not come out. But I want to thank you again and again! I want to thank Mr. Merriwell. Where is he?” But Frank Merriwell was gone. Stirred’ to the very depths of his soul, he had hurried away while they were singing; and he walked along the city’s streets, unmindful of his surroundings, uplifted, exalted, Strengthened for the battle of life. CHAPTER VII. AN ANGRY RNGINEER. That night as Frank was reading in his room by the light of a kerosene lamp, he heard voices from a room adjoining. There seemed something familiar in the sound, and he laid down the book on engineering which he had been studying. The voices ceased, but there was a sound of clattering dishes. The wall was thin, and up near the ceiling a crack showed a ray of light. Frank began to study again, and again the voices interrupted him. This time _ hewas sure there was a familiar sould about them. _ “Ys it possible?’ he muttered, starting to his feet. ‘‘Can they have a room so wear"? : -- His curiosity was aroused, 4nd, with a desire to satisfy himself, he drew a chair YOU SHOULD GET, A WAR BADGE. AT ONCE. “T can’t sing! is | | | TIP TOP WEEKLY. to the partition and 1 stood - upon it. enabled him to peer through the crack. He found liimself looking into a room much like his own. ficor, directly in the range of his vision, was, a table, on which stood a lighted lamp: The table was spread for a meal, and at that table sat the street musicians, It was | the blind girl and *her brother. evident that they had just sat down, for, as Frank looked the girl bowed her head to ask a blessing. Hushing his breathing, Frank tried to hear her words. He could not under- stand them all, but he heard Ler mention _ his name, and he knew he was included in that blessing. Frank could study no more that night : He walked the floor for a. time, feeling - ‘that a new interest had. come into his life, for somehow. it seemed there Was a: bond between himself and the young . street musicians. - . His dreams that night were s pleasant. Frank's second day in the roundhouse | was almost a repetition of the first, save. that he learned to assist in turning the engines upon. the table, and he listened: “toa discussion among the wipers about the mysterious properties of the slide valve, which led him to read upon the . subject as far as possible. A week passed. time Frank was able to clean - certain parts of the engine in a imanmer. thor- oughly satisfactory, and he could see that he was making progress in knowledge. He had also found an. opportunity. to make know to the young musicidns that his room was next to theirs, and there was visiting back. and forth. oes, ‘It really seemed to the brother and sister that their fortune had turned with the meeting with. Frank, for they were doing far better . than they . had done before. This | Iu the middle of the | By: the end of that Onrichooks (CO