I shut off the paper slip, took pencil and paper and began taking the message by ear.
I shall never forget his surprise.

He ordered me to give him back his pencil and pad, and after that there was never any difficulty between dear old Courtney Hughes and myself.

He was my devoted friend and copyist.
Soon after this incident Joseph Taylor, the operator at Greensburg, thirty miles from Pittsburgh, wishing to be absent for two weeks, asked Mr.Brooks if he could not send some one to take his place.

Mr.
Brooks called me and asked whether I thought I could do the work.

I replied at once in the affirmative.
"Well," he said, "we will send you out there for a trial." I went out in the mail stage and had a most delightful trip.