The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-12-06

the track until nothing could be seen
for yards but one long hill Of earth and
stones!
Now, little Madge, il there is heroism
in you, it must meet and lasso that iron
beast whirling q hundred people upon
death! A hundred! The whole world
was in the engine house. He wouldn't
try TO save himself when he came upon
the life-trap. She saw how he would
set his lips, bend nerve and brain 70 the
emergency; shesaw how car would crush
into caf, the wreck lie over q burning
engine, and Charley be ground and
chsrred under them all!
Osublimely selfish womani She flew
over the track like q thing of wings.
II was life and Charley, or death with
Charley! The headlight flashed Up
through the dusk. There were matches
in her pocket; she scraped them on a
rail, and tore off her apron. Oh! they
wouldn't ignite, and the cotton would
but shoulder. 1t is rolling down on
her as swift as air. Bless the loom
which wove the cloth which made the
cotton apron! She tossed it, blinking
and blazing, above her head, walking
slowly backward. The red-eyed fury
reared down at her, but you can't ter.
rify q m when her mind is made
up. Il should run owe her before it
should reach the heap.
She wa seen. The engine rent even
ing with its yells; the brakes, were on,
her lasso had caught it,-it could now
be stopped in time. He darted aside,
but the current wa too strong for her.
She was dizzy; fell, and clutched in the
wrong direction. Poor, poor little fin
gers!
Now the people pour out; they run
here and there. Women are crying
perhaps because they weren't hurt.
The engineer darts along like a mad.
man, looking under the train. There,
q dozen feet before the engine, rises the
sand hill, everybody wants to know
how they were stopped before they
rounded the curve.
Here she isl" shouted Charley,
striding up with q limp bundle, like a
king who had sacrificed to the good of
the state. "She showed the signal, and
stood up to it until l saw her-until we
almost run her down. There, half the
fingers cut off her left hand! There,
what do you think of that now, for the
woman who saved you all?" holding up
the mutilated stump.
"God bless it," prayed an old gentle
man, taking of his hat.
"Amen!" roared the crowd. With
one breath they raised three shouts,
which shook the sand hills until they
came down handsomely a second time,
Charley standing above their enthusi-
asm, with the fainting child in his arms,
like a regent holding some royal in.
FAINT.
LET me see herl" sobbed first one
woman, then another. So Charley sat
down and let them crowd around with
cologne, and linen for band.
ages. He even gave the men q glimpse
OF her waxy face, just unfolding to con-
Like all Western people,
they wanted to pour out their hearts in
"a purse" Madge hid her face on
Charley's blouse, and ''would none of
He carried her home at the head of
procession, which stopped before her
grandfatber's hut, and cheered her s1ast
appearance" So do people froth up in
gratitude.
An hour afterward, when the neigh
bors were dispersed, and Caspar stood
that ian ingen" might not
be the best brace for Madge's nerves,
when her hand was dressed, and her
grandmother was ~quavering q psalm in
the corner, Madge turned such q look
On Charley as even that stout-hearted
fellow could not stand. He leaned close
her, and not having yet washed the
smoke Oft his face, was as vulcan-like
! lover as you could desire. But Madge
saw the god, not the me
"Oh, Charley! how can l make a little
nest for you now? After the feeling Of
is over, you will wish you had
married anybody rather than a MANNED
Unwise Madee! She drew her fate
upon herself. l do aver, that to this
lay her nose is much aattened by
The vice-like punishment Charley made
her suffer for that speech.
When he came in next evening, he
aid q paper in her lap, and watched tn,
pale face expand and blossom while she
read a deed of gift to her of the pref
hest cottage on the prettiest street in
that city. The company which Charley
and which could 20 handsome
things as well a. thoughtless ones,
begged her, in q 1sttering note, to &C.
,ept the gift as only a small acknowl-
sdgment Of their obligations to her.
SLOW could she make q little nest for
him?" asked Charley, looking At her
brimming eyes.
"Why, with her hands, after ALL"
answered Madge, crying.
"And this will always be the prettier
L--l r - 50 ~ Al-A r--l-n e.