River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-12-02
win allbe well
KATIE'S LANTERN.

fashioned farm honSe, aJ tne IOOt Oh
the narrow and rocky ledge, had most
picturesque position. Away to the
southwark wound and smiled the fertile
valley, a goodly proportion OF whose
acres appertained to Grandfather
Crowninshield, and along the edge
thereof swept the curves of the rail
way, after what seemed It's 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 valley
and her nesting home were all the
world to her--all, indeed, that she had
ever known, for she had been bat a
wee thing when Grandfather and
Grandmother Crowninshiald became
father and mother to her, in place OF
those whose faces she could now hard.
ly remember. Neither did it ever oc-
cur 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 later years, one great
entity had painfully struggled into Ka-
ties world, with an apparent mis- ion
to unite the valley with that great un.
known, which lay beyond the hills and
lodges. Katie had seen the ragged rift
cloven in the granite wall, watching il
curiously from door or window, and
listening for the dull reports
of the blasting charges, unit
the barriers were pierced and the
railway crept out and found its way
down through the valley and ever
since the trains began to run, she haG
connected with them the idea of a life
that was almost human She had
waved her handkerchief enthusiastical
ly to the very first tram, and had been
literally responded to by passengers
and conductor and, although she had
been then little girl and was now a
young lady, she had never yet dreamed
of 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 Katies attentions were at last
pretty well restricted-a through-ex-
press, which went by at eight o'clock
in the morning, and there was another
from the same direction again at eight
O'Clock at night. From the former,
just as easily as her own dainty "good
morning futtered above the garden
gate, SO certainly would there be a
fieeting flash of white to answer heI
from the platform of one of the cars,
or even from the engine itself, for that,
too. had happened. And Katie knew
very well that, in these latter days, al
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 vel
aware, for a good while, that he was
the conductor of the train, but he
had never yet been near enough tC
speak to him, or get any clearer notion
of his face and its meaning than NIGH
be given her in those swift but almost
daily glimpses. When or how h,
found his way back to the beginning
of his perpetual journey, was ques
ton that Katie never asked even o
herself. Ii was enough that every
morning the swift train brought hin
out of the unknown country beyond
the hills, and added a something thai
had grown to be very pleasant 20 tn,
peace and quiet of her day
There was something very notewor
thy, even TO railway men, about tht
manner in which the road broke in
upon that valley. deep cut, SHARP
curve, and a heavy down grade, com.
blned to make the precise point where
the conductor had learned to look for
Katie's greeting an interesting one
and her white 'kerchief may even have
seemed 10 waive a species of congratu.
lation at his repeated safe passage OF
what might at any time have shaped
itself into a danger.
BE that as 1t may, the railway "cut .
had brought to Katie Crowninshield,
among other results, shorter and
asier path to the home OF her aunt,
her mothers sister, who lived Just a
little way beyond the ledge, and who
was never satisfied il too many DAYS
passed by without bringing the sun
light OF katie's face across her thresh
old. Aud SO Katie had gone and re-
turned, many and many time, by the
narrow path between the granite walls.
Nobody in that peacefulregion dreamed
OF fear az being "out after dark /" and
again aud again had good Aunt Betsy
detained her pet until night had fallen,
although her only companion home.
ward was her little star of lantern.
There came day when Katie.
handkerchief huttered in vain, and
then another when even the reply she
received from the train convinced her
that there had been change Of some
kind, and she would receive no more
signals from the same hand. ARd 81
she sadly prepared 10 give 1t mp, in
the first iii of genuine blues she had
ever INDUCED in but, a few evenings
aiterward, she fingered at the garden
gate . little, after her return from
Aunt Betsey's, to see the nigh. express
60 flashing by. Ii was u grand sight
when il came, incomparably more in.
teresting aud mysterious in the dark
ness than ever in the day, aud Katie
wondered she had never thought SO
before but she almost unconsciously