Brother Tom, Handyman Mike, and the Lamplighter

I saw very little of Tom during my early years because he was so much older. He was working and away from home and later he was in the Navy and away for a long time.
The room on the third floor was Mike's room and I am sure it was just as cold in the winter. Mike seems to have been a very quiet and lonely man. He had no friends that I know of, but he had a good sense of humor and could hold a good conversation. Sometimes he would talk for hours to the lamplighter in the evening. I suppose the lamplighter's wife wondered what was keeping him. That man went around every evening carrying a torch to light the gasoline mantle lamps that were used in those days to light the smaller roads in the area. I don't know how many lamps he had to light or how they got turned off in the morning.