A Smart Mule

I heard a good story the other day that was told by an old locomotive engineer, or engine driver as they more properly oall him in England- for the engineer is the man that surveys and "lays out" the road - and I am going to give it to you exactly as he told it, says a writer in the Humane World. If you don't want to believe it all I shall not object, but I shall preface the "yarn" with the remark that there are sorne "mighty smart" mules in the world. Here is the story: Railroad people have a horror oí running over animáis, not only cbecause they don't like to kill them, for humane reasons, but because a collision with one of ten results in derailing the train. There is another reason, too, as the old engineer said- they don't like to "muss up" their engine by strewing pieces of animal all over it. One day, on a railroad out in Illinois, this engineer seared up a mulé on the track beside him. They were about two miles from a bridge at the time; knowing the fashion all animáis have of running straight ahead on the track instead of putting their common sense on the matter and sheering off to one side, the engineer fairly made the surrounding country ring with the noise of his whistle, so as to get clear of the mule before they got to the bridge. But Mr. Mule seemed to think that the whistle was invented only to keep him on the track and make him run faster, and lie kept straight on at redoubled speed. Of course the engine could easily have overtaken him and knocked him into smithereens, but as that mightiihave resulted in knocking the train into the same kind of fragments, the engineer slackened speed a little, and finally stopped and sent the fireman out to drive the beast off the track. That was done several times, but each time the fireman had hardly got into the cab again when the mule was on the track the same as before, and tearing ahead like mad. In fact the thing was becoming very monotonous, when, looking up, suddenly, the engineer saw that he was very close to the bridge. Then he began to get uneasy for fear the idiot of a mule - as he thought the animal to be - was going to try to cross the bridge, though how he would manage to step on the nes surefooted the puzzled railroader could not understand. They were so near the bridge by that time that the engineer dared not go another rod, so he stopped short - just as the old mule dashed off aoross a field, braying like a good f ellow. And then the engiáeer and fireman saw the game the wise old animal was playing. Right in the middle of the bridge was another mule, stuck fast with his legs between the ties. The old railroader insists upon it that the mule had kept on the track to make the train go slow, and thus prevent it Jrom coming into collision with the mule on the bridge, not because it cared so much about the fate of its companion, but to save the train from wreek. I decline to express an opinión; as for you, you can take your choice as to the mule'e motive.