Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1872-08-31
FIVE.TEN.


around uttering the magic word
which cXacted the attention of full
fares and commuters alike, he look
cd at her ticket and herself with a
glance as near surprise as it was
easy for his official face to exhibit.
What Miss Flora perceived in his
countenance was something SO like
commiseration, that, struck by the
dart of fear in the midst Of her self
congratulation, she exclaimed:
What is the natter"
" Were you expecting to go to
Orleans ?" the conductor asked,
" | am" she said, with grammat-
ical satisfaction and emphasis.
" But we 60 to Bushfeld."
" Very we'll"
"Due west, madam. You want to
90 on the south road"
Miss Flora lokcda at him as though
he had spoken in a foreign tongue.
You have made mistake" he
added "IhiS is the $40 train. The
5;5 left on time"
" | am going to Bushfeld, then,
whether or no, do you mean?"
The young lady lokcd at the ear
window, and, as she did 50, caught
a glimpse of the apparently not un-
interested lady who sat by her side.
"Tm afraid there is no help for
it," said the conductor, soothiugIy,
at the same time laying his hand on
Flora's shoulder as if to prevent her
dashing through the window, or
possibly the vcntilator. Then he
ignored the ticket she was still cx-
tending toward him, and walked
on.
Miss Flora sat back in her scat
and gave herself up to reflections;
and perhaps tears stolcinto her eyes,
business woman though She aspired
and assumed to be, as she thought
of poor Phil sitting in the green
wagon and Watching till the last
passenger had left the train and the
station, and then disconsolatcIy
taking his way home without a pas
scnger. TO think Of the spcculations
and the fears that would torment
the houschould that night! q
Watt! O Fulton! o Stevenson
How feeble you all moved in her
emergency And o Darius Green!
How would she have composed an
epic in your honor, for Flora had
written verses, and had been deemed
a poet at II, had you but succeeded
in making your flying machine fly !
The lady who sat next to Miss
Flora held book in her hand,
which she was reading. lnlcrring
the desperate mood Of her compan-
ion from the motioness silence into
which she had retired as soon as the
conductor had moved on, she half
closed the volume and asked:
&" Have you never been to Bush
feld~
Never" sighed Miss Flora.
"And you have no friends there ?
Too bad"
81 never heard Of the place be-
fore"
"That is not so strange; it is
out of the world. So we, who
know all about it, are in the habit
of boasting,"
The voice of the stranger had
sy mpathy in it, and Miss Flora
now remembered that whose would
have friends must show himself
friendly.
"Can l telegraph from the
place." she asked.
"To New York you can"
" Not to Orlcans?"
" Yes, by the way of New York,
probably"
But that wouldn't do; when can
| go back to town."
Not before tomorrow afternoon
"a milk train leaves Bushfcld at
three"
Then said Miss Flora, feeling an
urgent necessity of accounting for
herself to somebody; " | was de-
tanned in spite of myself; and, when
| got on this train, was thankful
enough for it to have been the right
one"
HAP laughed her companion,
81 understand YOU"
With that she returned to hcl
book, and, if Flora liked, and could
do it, she might sit and admire her
Whether she did this or not, shc
could not well help receiving an
impression.
off ever there was an emanclpa-
ted woman" she thought, there Is
such one before me-"
And, in fact, the woman did look
as if she had not a care nor a vanity
in this wicked world to trouble her
Her mind was made up, evidently
as to most things that concerned
her, or could possibly concern her
She was neither old nor young, nol
Aurred, nor worried, nor lazy, MOI
capable of complaint. She sal
reading in her corner of the bright
red plush sofa, as if she had passe'
her youth there, and might stay
there through .her declining years
But, about ten minutes before th'
train was due at Bushfeld, she shu
4 l.