The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-06-09

Aunt Rachel and the boys had not yet
left their berth.
Suddenly they all felt great jerk;
then q number of jerks one after an
other. The people that were standing
were sent Keeling up against the berths;
the engine gave several sharp shrieks,
and the Ger went bump, bump. bump.
like wagon going over an old corn
field. 1t was very plain that they were
of the track. Now, crash went the
window-panes, the timbers creaked and
groaned; ladies screamed, and children
cried and chung to their parents.
Then, with great roar like q mortal
~ wounded lion, the car turned upside
down. and all the passengers felt as if
they were jumping up to the root. But
they did not come down again, for the
roof was now the floor, and the floor
was as q roof above them as they Law
huddled together, half-smothered by
the mattresses and bed-clothes that had
fallen upon them.
Mrs. Mack's first thought was for her
children. Roger and Willie had been
shot out of their berth clinging to one
another. and, as they fell all in a heap.
Roger heard q deep bass voice close to
his ear saying, "You would have been
better of in a hammock, Ell, my boyp"
But just then Roger could think of moth
ing else, and see but little else, than his
own nose which he had struck against
something in falling, and which had
already swelled to such q size that he
felt as if he were all nOse
Fortunately. except for bruises and .
good shaking, the Mack children were
not much hurt. Little Rosie was, per-
haps, the worst off; for, as was found
later, the large water-tank in the dress
ing room, where her mother had left
her just before the car turned over, had
split all its contents over her and soaked
her through and through. Julia and
the nurse-girl had banged their heads
together pretty hard, and Julia's
bumps afterwards grew alarmingly
black.
But where was the baby all this time
the poor, good little baby?
Alas. the baDy was not to be found.
When Mrs. Mack once comprehended
that fact, she was so much excited that
she could do little but call upon the
other passengers to find her baby, and
several of them became very much ex-
cited in looking for it. Old Aunt
Rachel, half crying and half praying,
snatchedup the blankets and mattresses
one by one, aud shook them as if the
baby was moth that could be hidden
in their folds. As for Lou, that tender
hearted nurse rolled about and cried so
much that her elder companion lost all
patience with her.
"Rold yer noise, yer stupid. good
tor-nothin' Niger" cried aunt Rachel.
shaking the poor girl 50 roughly that
her big white teeth actually ratified.
Dyer think that all yer hollerin' and
carrvin' on will find the blessed dArlin',
or bring her back to lite again, If so be
the Lords taken her? On the blessed
angel: Oh, the precious dead little
lamb!' And aunt Rachel became al
most as useless as the other girl in her
grief.
care you sure YOU brought the baby
with you at all, auntie?" asked a gem
tleman who was evidently a bachelor,
and thought that baby could be as
easily forgotten as an umbrella or a
bunch OF Keys.
brought her with mer' exclaimed
the old woman. turning upon h m
furiouslv. Lord sakes. didn't nuss
her on nv very own lap? Didn't that
bawlin' niggar gal tina" sleep by the
blessed lambs side jist fore the pesky
thing turned bottom up? Brought her
with me, ind edr' And aunt Rachel
seized a mattress and shook it with
such will that, had the baby been on
it, it would surely have been jerked up
to the ROTOR floor, rather.
But where could the baby be?
Already three minutes had passed
since the car turned over. and no baby
had been found. 1t seemed to have
vanished--as ii its guardian angel had
snatchcd it out of harms way.
BY this time the conductors and
braKemen had helped most of the peo-
pie out OF the cars, and doctor. who
had fortunately been on the train, was
attending to the FOUNDED.
"You'd better let me get YOU all out,
ma am" said kindly voice. "We'Il
find the baby: don't you fear"
ooh, Kit, Kitr' cried Roger, for the
voice belonged to his friend the brake
man. "What shall we do? Oh, Ohere
is little sister,"
"rl find her, Roger, if you all get
out of the car. Now, ma am. please to
let me help you out. I'll find the little
one. or my name amt Kit Dexter"
Mrs. Mack was taken out in faint
ing condition, and the two colored
women. who fought like tigers, were
tumbled out with little ceremony.
"Lost baby, have they?" said the
conductor. as he and Kit began to turn
over the mattresses and pillows. "It'll
be mercy if some one hasn' trampled
on the poor little thing already, so that
it d be poor comfort to its mother.
Why. TIM blest if all these here berths
amt shut up. They must have''-
But here the brakeman scrambled
hastily over the conductor and Roger,
who had remained in the car, and made
for berth which had only been pre-
vented from shutting up tightly BY a
corner of pillow that had been caught
in it.
"Come and hold this thing up,
quick he called. hastily.
The conductor seized the Shelf and
kept it from falling back, and then Kit
thrust his head and shoulders into the
hollow space.
Lift it up higher" said Kit. al
can't get out"
The conductor forced the heavy shell
up as far as it would go. and there in
Kits arms was the poor little half
suffocated baby.
And so the lost baby was found. OF
course. Mrs. Mack went into Mysteries
when it was brought to her. and Rugged
it so closely that it was in danger oil
being suffocated a second time; aud
after the doctor had seen that it was all
right. Kit was called upon for an expla-
| nation.
"You see. ma am" said Kit, "them
upper berths opens down from above,
| so when the car turned bottom up aud
sided down the embankment, the shell
nat rally fell down or up as you've q
mind to call it, just a. if it'd been shut
up by the porter. Luckily for the poor
baby, corner of the pillow kept il