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

AJsss PNiseu sucoc up IOS Ieiisu.
They're cooling, ingens is. You tended
that ingeu.bed, didn't you, Madgiey
"Grandma and l."
"And we wanted some of them in
gems for Market" said the old wife,
cycling the sacrifice severely. ave
amt got no ground to throw away raisin'
luxuries for ourselves"
well, we'll, mother, pleaded Caspar,
dipping his fragrant sphere in salt, " l
don't calk'late to pull 'em all. jist
wanted somethin' refreshin' after = hard
day. Taste 'em, Madgie," said he, in
sinuating the emerald tops toward her.
"Oh, no, grandpa, keep 'em YOURSELF"
shaking her head and smiling.
81 feel" rambled Caspar, filing his
senses and his jaw with perfumed roots,
until q blind man would have pro-
nounced him q Mexican, if his nose had
sat in judgment over Caspar, " / rally
feel as if l needed somethin' refreshin',
workin' hard day after day for nothin',
you might say. Sort OF SEEM your
work 60 to pieces under your eyes, and
KNOWN the danger to them on the
road"
"What do you mean, grandpa ?" cried
Madge, turning white As her bread and
butter.
"Why, honey, you see we've picked
and picked in that cut, and the sile's as
unstiddy as water. The stones and
earth jist roll on the track contineral.
The company orto do somethin' to that
cut. Stones as big as you is Jared down
every train. But then the roads new,
the roads new, yet"
"Men ant got n 70 sense" broke in
the old wife. "Don't you see you're
skeer'n g that child to death for fear
Charley'l git smashed up. He runs on
that road"
Two blades of keen remorse leaped
from Caspar's bleared eyes.
"Now, don't you be skeered, honey.
Take an ingen, honey"
He reached over to pet her fingers.
"Charley didn't pass the day when
the dirt was rattlin' down 30. He don't
pass till half.after eight this evening,
and we left the track as clean as this
table. Yes, sir, them rails is as free and
bright as new tin pans. So, don't you
be skeered, honey"
"Tm not scared about anything,
grandpa" said Madge TREMENDOUSLY, but
smiling like q rainbow.
"There, new, mother" cried Caspar
triumphantly, returning to his onions,
"you come down on me for nothin'.
She amt skeered u bit"
No, not a bit. She flew about the
room like a bird, washed the earthen-
ware, brought her grandfather his pipe,
and dropped at his feet to him some
funny story afoat. In his enjoyment
he wrapped himself in such a cloud
that she could hardly see the clock.
Madge slipped out to the gate. She
was often there, looking up the road.
The two old people sat inside, thinking
of the days when they were young.
She was restless, and fitted over the
cinder sidewalk, following q magnet
which would have drawn her from the |
center of the earth. To the road, of
course. How often had she watched
the rails conveying horizonwards until
they sharpened themselves to a needle
point! The railroad had q fascination
for Madge. When a baby, she used to
follow her grandfather to his work, and
hide among bushes to see the big freights
numbering by, and the express trains
whirling into town like screaming land
demons. She had heard of the sea, and
the spell it had upon sailors, but she
saw the railroad and felt the spell,
which nobody seemed 10 remark, that
it cast over inland laborers. She Jaw
her boy playmates sucked up by the
road )" heard her grandfather tell of
hair breadth escapes from collisions, of
cool courage in men who placed them
selves between the people they carried
and most horrible death. She had
learned the power and mission of "the
In short, she was as loyal q
daughter of the rail as any Maine skip
per's child is of the sea. Madge had
for IN engine. To this day
her throat swelled, her eye kindled,
when the great iron animal swept past
her. Charley drove an engine, and his
was, in her eyes, q fitting ex-
ponent Of the strength and beauty of
his manhood. Such was the romance
Of her little dry life. Everybody must
have his enthusiasm. She had been in
the towns great depth At night, arrived
from q holiday trip, and had laughed
aloud to see some busy engine hurrying
up and down, picking up freights like =
hen gathering her chickens; now
breathing loud enough to deafen a null
now concentrating his strength
and painting slowly away at the head of
its charge. She had walked from sleep
to hear them calling to each other
through the darkness, and translated to
herself what they said.
It was a proper thing for Madge to be
engineers wife. She thought it a
fitting thing to be Charley's wife under
any circumstances, l assure you. There
was now only q little strip Of time be-
tween Madge and Charley. She looked
nvor that 1ift1o afrin. and aaw mat how L