The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1876-12-08

W w lN''ef "h' hNNNi w INV tti'
e failed to pass on time to the very nil
e ute. l do wish somebody would p,
+ something on the track and throw III
{ next train off,"
Y "Nellie J" cried John. much shockct
I "She laughed and blushed, and pei
! haps regretted that silly speech, an
: penitently began TO be more agreeable
She even offered to 60 into the parlor
, and sing Johns fhvorite ballad 70
him. lie insisted eagerly, and present
ly was in the seventh heaven as h
leaned upon the old piano aud lis,ene,
to his darling's angelic music.
In the midst Of one Of Nelie's songs
she aud her companion were b, tn star
tied by the sudden and shrill scream o
a locomotive whistle.
White, tremulous, and with beating
hearts, they ran quickly out upon the
porch. Suffering such anguish OF
fright as people felt but once in life.
time, and without knowing for what
reason, they instinctively glanced up
the railroad track.
The train was smashing down the
rails t terrific speed. The whistle
shrieked again. Directly in the path
Of the engine lay a huge rock, which
had rolled down the embankment.
The next moment the pilot of the
locomotive struck it, the train Jumped
from the line and zigzagged little fur
Their, there was terrible crash, the
cars crowded together, forming a cha
otto mass, cries and shrieks of agony
went up, and for the first time in its
history there had happened an acct
dent on the A railroad.
John Mortimer hurried quickly to
the scene. From a cloud of steam
and debris, where lay the shattered To-
motive, a human being emerged-a
man whose head had boiled upon his
while he was yet alivel
1t was the engineer, hideou, ly scald-
ed, frantic with agony, but, unhappily
for him, not dead.
Others crawlcd from the wreck. !
Those who could set to work instantly |
TO rescue such as were beyond the pow
err of helping themselves. Some still
breathed, but nearly all semblance to
humanity was crushed out of them.
Among the rest, a man was pulled
from beneath the ruins of as moking.
,ar, and through his side huge splin-
Ter had been driven like an arrow. 1t
vas Lionel Chelmont.
Mr.. Chelmont was taken to Chest
nut Farm, and he recovered conscious
Dess. Nellie, distracted with grief,
was at his bedside.
His first words we're
"Send for my Wife"
They thought him delirious, but it
was not so. In this, his last hour, he
old the truth, that he was a married |
nan. He implored Nellie to fogive
him.
81 loved and would have betrayed |
you, my poor girl, william that was"
ne gasped; "but am fifty punished.
Say that you forgive me, Nellie"
He died with that unanswered pray
n upon his lips. Next day his beautiful
Toung wife came and there could be no
'urther doubt. She told the history of
her own unhappiness-how heaven
rad bestowed upon Lionel Chelmont |
very gift but that of strong moral
nature, and how that one defect blast
ID every blessing.
1t was long mystery how the rock
,ad come to fall to the railway track,
md never till he grew to manhood did
Frank Tyrrell reveal the truth-that
u the thoughtless mischief of child
rood he himself had contriyed to loo
EN- and hurl it there that afternoon
when his sister had so impatiently
onged Tor a change-even for some
horrible accident.
Nellie's nature was transformed.
The dreadful escape she had made was
lesson never to be forgotten.
"Old friends" she sighed, cold
,laces am, old things are the best, af
er all and she married faithful John
Mortimer.
Never once since that event has she
Wished for a change. +