Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-07-31
fiterarp 5rleftions.
CHANCES AND CHANGES.
A RAILROAD REAIINIsCENCE.
BY FRANCES DANA GAGE,

"Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes to-
night, sir" was the gentlemanly reply to
the rough query.
"Eleven o'clock and thirty minutesl-l
Go to Texas! Why, it's ten this very
minute, I'll bet my boots against jack |
knife the morning express is off"
Eyes, sir, it has been gone half an
hour"
aWhy in natur didn't you get US here
sooner? Fourteen hours in Chicager is
enough to break fellow all to smash
Fourteen hours in Chicager, putting and
blowing! I've been told they keep a re-
cular six hundred horse steam power all
the while running to blow themselves
up with, and pick the pockets of every
traveller to pay the fremen and engineers!
Wall 1 guess I can stand it; I've a
twenty that has never been broke, I reck-
Cd that will put me through. Why didn't
you fire up old brag,-give your old
boss another peck of oats. I tell ye,
this fourteen hours will knock all my
calculations into the middle of next
week."
Every sorry, sir-we've done our best;
but as we are not clerks of the weather,
Ihope you will not lay your misfortune
to our account. Snow drifts and the
thermometers sixteen degrees below
zero, are enemies we can't readily over
come"
"That's so," said the first speaker,
with broad emphasis, and good natur-
ed, forgiving smile. Fourteen hours in
Chicager!"
The stentonian voice, sounding like a
trumpet, had aroused every sleeper from
elysian dreams into which he might have
fallen after his long, tedious, cold nights
travel. Every head was turned, every
eye was nAU5 tho ~pha had TINS
broken the silence. He was standing
bv the stove warming his boots. To
have warmed his feet through such a
mass of cow-hide and sole-leather would
have been a fourteen hours operation
Six feet four or five inches he stood il
those boots, with shoulders ceased in &
fur coat that looked more like bearing
up world than you will meet, ordinari
fy, in half life time. His head Web
sterian, his shaggy hair black as jet, hi
whiSkers to match, his dark, piercing eye
and his jaws externally moving, with
rousing quid between them, while smil
Of cheerful good humor, Notwithstanding
his seeming impatience, attracted ever
ones attention.
Fourteen hours in Chicager, eh!-
Well, l can stand it if the rest can;
twenty dollars won't cary me throug
I'll borrow of my friends, I've got tt
things thafll brig EN-. That's So"
And he thrust hand I;'"fe less
size than n cor,-lon spade, down into IL
covornou, depths of a broad, stripe
Gas1y pair of pants, and brought up tn
great red hand, full as it could hold,
shining twenty dollar gold pieces.
"Don't you think can stand these e
Chicager for one fourteen hours?"
A nod Of assent from three or fol
and smile of curiosity from the re
answered his question in the affirmati,
F'Youmust have been in luck, strange
said an envious looking little man.
you've more than your share of gol
Il have, eh? Well, / reckon not
come honestly by it; that's SO. A
there's them living who can rememl
this child when he went round the p'rs
ries trapping p'rarry hens and the /
to get him nights lodging, or pail
shoes, to keep the massassaugers fir
biting my toes. I've hung myself
more nor one night in the timber, to k
out of the way of the wild varmi
best sleeping in the world in the Gro
Of tree-top! Now, I reckon you wol
MT believe it, but I've gone all wiz
without shoe to my foot; and lived
wild game when could ketch if. Th
So"
didn't it stunt your GROWTH" sa
voice near.
"Not bit of il. 1t brought right
These p'rarries are wonderful room,
thought one spell would let ny
out entirely, but me and mother h
corcus and decided that as she was
ung old, and blind like, If tux too
and cost too much to sew up the lei
my trousers, and SO put a stop
and concluded that six feet five woul
ior ieller that couldn't afford the
penslve luxury of 8 wife to make
pfe'ehes. 1t was only my love fo