Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-12-03
KATIE'S LANTERN.

iIubu 10 uol1s UIlo COmIOrUaUIe, OlQ-
fashioned farm house, at the foot of
the narrow and rocky ledge, had most
picturesque position, Away to the
southwark wound and smiled the fertile
valley, 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 but a
wee thing when Grandfather and
Grandmother Crowninshield 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 mission
to unite the valley with that great I'M
known, which lay beyond the hills and
lodges. Katie had seen the ragged rift
cloven in the granite wall, aiching it
curiously from door Or window, and
listening for the dull reports
of the blasting charges, until
the barriers were pierced and the
railway crept out and found it's way
down through the valley; and ever,
since the trains began to run, she had
connected with them the idea of a life
that was, almost human. She had
waved her handkerchief enthusiastical-
~ to the very first train, 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 Katie's attentions were at last
pretty we'll 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
feeting flash of white to answer her
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, 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 we'll
aware, for a 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 clearer notion
of his face and its meaning than might
daily glimpses. When or how he
found his way back to the beginning
of his perpetual journey, was ques-
ton that Katie never asked even of
herself. It was 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 notewOr-
thy, even to railway men, about the
manner in which the road broke in
upon that valley. A deep cut, sharp
curve, and 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 TO waive species of congratu-
lation at his repeated safe passage of
what might at any time have shaped
itself into danger.
Be that as 1t may, the railway "cut %
had brought to Katie Crowninshield,
among other results, shorter and
aSler path tO the home of bo7. amt