Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-07-07
.When is the next train downp'' I

"When is the next train DOWN." I
asked.
! 8 In about three hours.'
|" And that means past midnight, and
the railroad Office light is out already.
Where is the hotel?''
"Hotel at Wampum Station there is
none But if you will come home with
me, mother, am sure, will give you
shelter.''
"I do not like to intrude-"
If it were your own act and inten-
ton, it would be an intrusion. But it is
not. You can not stay out of doors in
the cold and the snow and I owe you
something for your considerate polite
ness.''
Politeness-well, there was something
in that, as the numbness of my limbs,
from the weight of the bundle, testified.
And as to my respectful consideration.
she must have meant my silence. So
continued considerable, took her parcel,
and we trudged out into the night, she
leading, and neither of us saying a
word.
Ushered into the house, / was fairly
taken all aback. There was the identi-
cal clock in the corner, and the same
old ship labori1g against dead-beat
sea. My fellow passenger had turned
on the stove draughts, the room warmed
up, and sat down in the chair she
offered me. She had lighted lamp
with neat.paper spill, and gone for her
mother. The pretty receiver which
held the paper lighters would have
caught my eye at any time. 1t was the
center of a bouquet of tropical vegetable
snowy plumes and native autumn leaves
and grasses such trifle as speaks the
model woman and housekeeper. But
the thing had greater wonder for me.
1t was precisely like what had seen in
my-trance, shall call itp L put my
hands on my knees to find that bundle,
and could hardly understand why it was
not there still, for the weight
was there; and I curiously as
ISOLATED it with all the articles
in the room, as they came out, one by
one, like aquaintances of time gone by.
I could even perceive that they were
older than when saw them before, or
seemed toysee them. In spite of care
or, perhaps, in consequence of it-they
had gather the marks of age. They had
been brushed and and rubbed into pre-
mature decay, though the effort was ev
ident to keep them as they were forever.
Ipinched my ear to ascertain whether
I was in the body, and stretched out
my legs to the stove to make sure that
awful bundle of dry-goods was
not still cramping my limbs.
just then saw it resting
upright against the wall, where myself
had placed it. 1t was sailors clothing,
and seemed to take the shape of man,
with Charley's head on it. This was too
much. sprang to the spot, and discov-
cred that on the wall above the parcel
hung life sized photograph of the fea-
lures of that very Charley whom I had
seen in this room when was dreaming
In the railway car. s'Fudge!" snorted,
and rubbed my eyes and thrashed my
limbs, to work myself, if possible, out of
my mystification.
It was not to be. I should not be
from my cloudiness so readily.
The door opened, and my fellow-traveler
returned, preceding her mother. And
that mother was the mother whom l
had already seen. She had the same
look with which she dis
turbed the tete-a-tete of Charley and
Minnie. But the lines in her face had
and the discomfort of time
had palpably worked into her features.
could have counted the years in the
indurated wrinkles which had stereo-
typed her frown since saw her dismiss
poor Charley from that room. You
will observe that l speak of the railway
experience as of an actual one of many
years ago. can not help it, and have
no other mode of expressing the idea as
it Impressed my mind.
I bowed, in depreciation of all ill-hu-
NOR, and turning to the daughter, said,
"Minnie, l will go away on the next
train. 10
"Minnie, indeed!" the old lady broke
indeed! You have grown
wonderfully familiar on a short &C
quaintance. My daughter told me that
she had never seen you before, and l
can not tell whether she has brought
home a tramp, or a burglar, or forger,
or what"
Poor Minnie's face put on a look of
wondering confusion. So, I suppose,
did mine. The old lady continued:
"And, Mary, you must have become
quite confidential in your ride, when
this man-this ge,atLemdn-knows you
by pet name never heard out of this
house."
1t was quandary, more for Minnie
than for me, and yet sufficiently mys-
terious even to myself. Just then I
heard railway whistle. Eager to es-
cape, 1 said, "There's my train, and
I'll 90 at once"
1t is the eleven o'clock up train,"
said Minnie; and her mothers brow
darkened, if possible, still more. 'Your
train down will not be here for an hour
yet"
What more might have been said or
done in the fog we were all in-Minnie
even more perplexed than /, and the
mother wrathful besides-win never be
known. For there came knock at the
door, at which mother and daughter
started and stared aghast. Only birth
or death should cause summons like
that, at near midnight, in the village at
Wampum Station. The knock being
there came tap upon the
window trembling, nervous tap. The
mother reluctantly went to the door.
Scarce had we heard her challenge and