"Mister," my companion in the smoking-car addressed me rather timidly, "hev you ever bin to Ebenezer?"

I looked at him a moment: kindly eyes, tanned face, grizzled beard; clothing of that indescribable, faded greenish brown which had lost all resemblance to its original color.

"Yes," I answered, "I've been there a number of times."

A moment's pause; then, "Quite a sizeable place, so folks say."

I assented, wondering what was to come.

"An' to think I've never seen it—never bin to Ebenezer in all my life, an' I live right back here a piece, not ten miles over the hills from Ebenezer. But if this here train stays on the track till we git there," he added with some pride, "I'm goin' to see it.

"I'm goin' to see Ebenezer, jest to think of it! Well sir, it makes me all het up. Many's the time when I come in fr'm chores, I'd set by the fire an' read the Ebenezer Weekly Review and Advertiser; an' there I'd see, 'Ebenezer items: Squire Hodge's store painted; the Ebenezer Dry Goods Emporium moved into new and more commodorious quarters,' et cetery. Then I'd say to Mandy, 'Mandy, some day we'll go to Ebenezer.' But we never went. Well, I s'pose it's all fer the best." He sighed and shook his head.

"But I'm goin' to see it all now." He brightened up again. "Yes, sir, poor Mandy's fixed so she can't leave the house now, kind of laid up with rheumatiz. A spell back, though, when our daughter got married, an' time kind o' hung heavy on our hands, Mandy says, 'Why don't you go alone, pa? Now's a good chance. So I fixed things up spick an' span, an' Nancy—that's our girl—come over this mornin' to stay with her ma, an' I—well, it'll be grand! D'you s'pose I c'n see it all in one day?"

"Oh, yes."

"Well," he sighed contentedly, "that's good. Say, you've bin awful good to me, tellin' me all about Ebenezer. I'm glad I met some one who's had experience in such a big town." Silence for a minute. Then he leaned over confidentially.

"D'y' know, it sort o' seems 's though the sunshine was a leetle bit brighter to-day than usual, all on 'count of my goin' to Ebenezer. Only I wish Mandy c'd be along."

"Ebenezer!" yelled the brakeman. "Ebenezer!"

Literary Monthly, 1906.