Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-01-12


! air, clear out of the water. 1t was awful
| 10 look at. How the child got over the
gap, which was at least twenty feet wide,
| don't know. A tree bad come down
and lodged crossways. and ! suppose he
must have gone over that. Wen we come
to it. we was most afraid to try it, for II
you slipped of the log it was all day with
you | didn't like to trust the BOYS, and
| SEES to Jake, Crazy. YOU wont drop the
baby, will vou?" He points down into
| the creek and says, Latham, we'd all
been down there. every mothers son oil
| US. but tor your little pard. I'd drop my
| soul first
Wer we got i'm home safe at lat.
| Mary was asleep when we got to the
| house, and was scared as bad as me
when she heard what was up. We put
i'm back in his bed and sure enough he
never walked up. Next mornn' they
threw a trestle over the break and trains
was runnin agin. But the doctor stayed
with us. just out of his own head, you
know. but he seemed anxious. Seemed
as though he took to the child. Don't
wonder at that, neither. Most every
body did
l watched by him all that night. and
toward day, got out all his old Christ
mas things. aud set 'em onto table
near the bed. where he could see 'em the
first thing. But fever came on i'm. N
wen he woke up he was out of his head.
I speaks to i'm and ses. "lIow goes it,
PardP' But he didn't know me. That
was Thanksgiving Day, you know, "A
sat there by him. hOpin' every minute as
he might come round, 50 | give i'm his
things and we could hev our holiday jest
as we used to do. But he KEEP getlin'
worse from hour to hour.
He was sick Jest week and wanderin'
and wild from first to last. stayed with
i'm all the time, for hadn't wits enough
to handle a machine, aud the boys sent
me word not TO bother myself about BUSH
ness, m they'd see me through. So be-
tween 'em, they did my duty, and No.
20 wedtsup and down in her reg lar runs
Jest as if | was at the lever myself. You
know | was telin' about the water-tank
near the house. 1t didn't used to be used
much but that week seemed as though
there wasn't Ga train, either way, that
didn't get out of water just there, and
some OF 'em would come over to see
about the boy. And their wives kept
sendin' nice things-and they was all
poor people, too. You see, somehow it
travelled about fast what little Pard had
done, stoppin' the train that night, N he
SIGH a mite OF child. An it got into
the newspapers, and the President of the
road came up to see i'm and all that.
But he just went on from day to day, .tor
Death struck i'm from the first moment as
he stood there in the winter rain.
From his talking while he was delirous
we found out pretty much all how it was.
| reckon he heard the storm in his sleep
and the roarin' OF the run. and that set
i'm to dreamin.' OF course he knew it
was my night, N | had often told i'm
what a bad place it was and what to do
if anything ppened-never thinking
that ne d 90 TO dom OF it hisself. But he
gets up in his sleep takes his lantern and
! goes out to meet me. I'd be sittin' there
and watchin' OF i'm by his bed. n he'd
begin first jest kind o. mutterin,' and
I'd hear him say softly like as eff he
WAS talkn' to hisself
"Pard's due at the run in 20 mints.
! kin git there in time.
| 'Peared like it was all goin' through his
mind agin an he was doing over jest what
he did that night. We could tell wen he
got to the place where the road broke,
Tor he says, kin git over on that log
Et don't my pard IL be killed.
You see we could mostly foller i'm by
watchin i'm and Kitchen what he sed
Onct or twict he shook right hard, and
his teeth chartered. We thought it was
the cold he was ieeln' again as he felt it
out there in the night with nothin on i'm.
Then he keeps still awhile like he was a
wailin and listening for the train, and
you'd see i'm hold his breath fearin' he
couldn't ketch the sound. Pretty soon he
speaks agin, gently like. and SEES:
"Kin he see the light in time ?"
Then be waits bit. Next he Jumps
right up in bed on his knees and screams
out at the top of his voice.
stop her pard Stop 29!'
Stranger I've seen irighlful things in
my time. but | never see anything SO aw-
full as that was. Pale and wild, with the
fever on i'm. that mere baby was tryn'
to make me hear, and the wind how lin
and the train roarin' the way it was An
we'd try to keep i'm stil' n his mother
would coax him, and try to quiet him N
he'd scream agin.
"Culvert's gone Stop her pard !"
An I'd take him in my arms N he'd be
all of a culver, Then it seemed like he
heard me whistle, for he SEES,
"All right he's BLOWN brakes
An puts i'm back in bed and he laws
still mint like he was listenin' and
SEES,
Hes a revcrsin' of 20, he is Ny pard
-pard's safe"
Then he'd shut his eyes and drop of.
and smile in his sleep, like he was salts
fed. By-and-by he'd begin and go over
it again, and so day after day alters the
same.
The doctor, you know, him was tel
lin about, well, he stopped off that night
and staid with us all the week and nursed
baby like he was his own. When it was
all over thought it was right. N SEES to
i'm doctor! can pay yon ?" Mo- ses
he, Latham, you cant. His life saved
mine. And besides that, Latham" n he
filled up like. besides that, Latham, I've
got one jest his aye. There amt nothn'
you kin give me but that little curl there
on his forhead." SO Mary takes the scis.
sors and cuts it off. He kissed it, u put
1t in his pocket II went away.
On the night of the break of Devils
Run, wen | got off the machine to see
what was the matter, pulls out my watch
nd .1... ,.i,l l. ~.