Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-11-20
KATIE'S LANTERN.
BY w. o. sTODDARD.

TRUTH to tell, the comfortable, old
fashioned farmhouse, at the foot of the
narrow and rocky ledge, had most pic
suresque position. Away to the south
ward wound and smiled the fertile valley,
4 goodly proportion of whose acres APP
pertained to Grandfather Crowninshield,
and along the edge thereof swept the
curves of the railway, after what seemed
its birth in the cloven ledge so very near
to Katie Crowninshield's home AS for
Katie herself, with her sweet, fresh face,
and her merry brown eyes, the little val
lev and her nesting home were all the
world to her-all, indeed, that she had
ever known, for she had been but a wee
thing when Grandfather and Grandmother
Crowninshield became father and mother
to her, in place of those whose faces she
could hardly now remember. Neither
did it ever occur to her that she was in
any sense an heiress, for she seemed rather
to belong TO the valley than the valley to
her; while the idea, if anything had
brought it to her mind, that her good old
grandparents were not to live forever,
would have turned the brightest June day
to the gloomiest December.
But, in these latter years, one great en-
tity had painfully struggled into Katie's
world, with an apparent mission to unite
the valley with that great unknown,
which lay beyond the hills and lodges
Katie mad seen the ragged rift cloven in
the granite wall, watching it curiously
from door or window, and listening for
the dull reports of the blasting charges,
until the barrier was pierced and the rail
way crept out and found its way down
fhrar nh ha nd OH m
trains began to run, she had connected
with them the idea Of life that was al
most human. She had waved her hand
kerchief enthusiastically to the very first
train, and had been literally responded to
by passengers and conductor; and, al
though she had been then a little girl and
was now young lady, she never yet
dreamed of any unmaidenly boldness in
giving the same white signal of welcome,
at times, when the great railway mystery
came rushing out of the cloven wall.
There was one train in particular to which
Katie's attentions were at last pretty well
restricted-a through-express which went
by at eight o'clock in the morning, and
there was another from the same direc-
ton again at eight o'clock at night. With
the latter, for very long time, Katie had
felt no sort of sympathy, since it could,
as she thought, neither see nor acknowl-
edge courteous greetings, while from the
former, just as easily as her own dainty
good morningw fluttered above the. gar
den gate, SO certainly would there be a
fleeting fash of white to answer
her from the platform Of one of
the cars, or even from the engine
ITSELF for that, too, happened. And
Katie knew very well that, in these latter
days, at least, her answer had always come
from the same hand A tall, erect, manly
fellow he was, dressed in dark. blue cloth /;
and Katie had been well aware. for good
while that he was the conductor of the
train, but she had never yet been near
enough to speak to him, or get any clear
er notion of his face and its meaning than
might be given her in these swift but al
most daily glimpses. When or how he
found his way back to the beginning of
his perpetual journey, was question that
Katie never asked even of herself TWAS
enough that every morning the swift train
brought him out of the unknown country
beyond the hills, and added something,
that had grown to be very pleasant, to the
peace and quiet of her day.
There was something very noteworthy,
even to railway men, about the manner in
which the road broke in upon the valley.
deep cut, sharp curve, and heavy
down-grade, combined to make the pre-
else point where the conductor had learn
ed to lock for Katie's greeting an inter-
esting one; and her white kerchief may
even have seemed to wave species of
congratulation at his repeated safe pas
sage of what might at any time have
shaped itself into danger.
be that as it may, the railway "cut" had
brought to Katie Crowninshield, among
other results, a shorter and easier path to
Inc home of her aunt, her mothers sister,
who lived just little way beyond
the ledge, and who was never sat
lsfled if too many days passed by
without bringing the sunlight of Katie's
lace across her threshold. And so Katie had
gone and returned, many and many a
time, by the narrow path between the
granite walls. She had learned to walk
the rails like a rope-dancer, and she knew
The time of every train too well, as she
often told Aunt Betsy, ever to get herself
caught in the cut Even if she should,
she said, there were ever so many
places where she could Chamber
up on the rocks at the side, and
De entirely safe. Nobody in that peace
iui region dreamed of fear at being tout