Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-08-04
BRArrLEBoRo VT, FRIDAY. AUGUST 4, 1882

mothers of their children, not dorm, and the
race shall not begin to deteriorate through
me. Rose, If your father really needs money,
l will lend him whatever sum he names, and
without interest. Better still, we will be mar
ried at once, and his son can claim the same
right to help him that his daughter demands.
But II is not fit that my future wife should
crowd elbows with some common girl from a
tenement-house learning a vulgar trade. Give
it all up, Rosie, and say that you will marry
me-next week, tomorrow, when you will
and never talk nonsense again about earning |
your living"
"If am capable" answered Rose, tremb-
ling with anger and wounded pride-'if am |
capable Of a suggestion which dishonors your
house, am proved unfit TO mate with it. l |
would never have consented that you should |
marry my whole family, and they would re-
pudiate such "a scheme with Indignation But |
now will not consent that you should marry |
me. We do not agree on so simple a thing as |
the definition of honesty and duty. What |
folly, what madness, to suppose We should |
not ruin one anothers lives l have adored |
my father ever since 1 knew his dear face, and |
he is nobleness all through. He could not |
think a mean thought, or set a sham above |
reality 1 have loved you for year, and you |
have hurt me with your mean thoughts and |
your reverence for shams again and again. II |
N Ahp lhnh lAAits tnOObb NY lhlutT. 10, ]
Will Hayes and never come again"
So they parted, with anger and injustice
and bitter longing on both sides, and with
pride which forbade either to make atone |
ment Rose went to the great Office in Stat
ford, and studied with a fierce determination
to succeed, born not more Of her conscien-
tiousness than of her wish to have no leisure
for regret. She duly won her certificate and
obtained the excellent place of night operator
at the great junction station of Fairfield,
where twenty rushing trains, incoming from
north, south, east, west, depended upon her
slender hands, her sleepless eyes, her sensi
tive ears, for safety. She was faithful, tire
less, skillful. She was earning money which
every month gladdened the girls at home.
She was helping her father to bear his bur
dens with new courage, inspired by her cheer
full self-sacrifce Was she happy? The
nights were long. She was not always busy.
And there was so much time to think, even
when her hands were occupied. She missed
home and home tenderness more than she had
thought possible. She missed Wills impetu-
Gus, ardent, constant devotion. She missed
even his tyranny, and mourned it. But she
never dreamed of giving up. And she knew
by heart the significance of Adam Bede S say
ing: There's nothing but what's bearable
so long as man can work. Tho square o.
four il sixteen, and you must lengthen your
lever in proportion to your weight, is as true
when mans miserable as when he's happy
and the best O. working is, it gives you grip
hold O. things outside your own lot"
There came a rainless August. Day after
day the sun shot fercer jayelins of heat.
Night after night stiffness of slow suffoca.
tion seemed to encompass the earth. But as
Rose went wearily to her work one darkening
twilight nsmeless thrill and terror in the
air warned her of coming tempest. In mo-
ment an inky blackness blotted out the world
a whrlwind clutched at her flying figure, and
as she struggled breathless up the platform
of the station the heavens seemed to open in
vast sheet of flame, the building trembled
in the crash of thunder, sudden fire flashed
from her little office, and darkness as of mid
night had settled once more over all things.
She groped her way forward, stumbling
against a man.
"Is it you, Miss Myrick ?" he gasped. "For
Gods sake don't stay here! That bolt struck
the instrument and burned out the magnet
The rooms death-trap. Come away"
81 can't, Mr.. Rice. It's time for me to 90 on
duty. Something may happen to the trains
in this awful storm. Is no one else here p
mot soul, Miss Myrick. It's the hsf-hour
for supper, though it's so dark. There's no
train for forty minutes. It's as much as your
life is worth to meddle with that magnet.
beg you TO come"
Another fash of binding light; another
crash as of crumbling world.
Don't stay, Mr. Rice" said Rose, quietly.
You have your wife and child to consider
But my place is here"
He made feint TO remain, but she closed
the door of the Office behind her, as if to
make his dismissal absolute, and he was glad
to go. She found the matches, lighted her
lamp, and supplied the magnet, fury of rain
and wind dashing against her window, flame
of lightning seeming to scorch her eyeballs.
She tried her instrument, and found the cir
cult secured. Her nerves were tense with ex-
element Sho went to the open door to
breathe. CHASTITY brilancy, brighter than
any daylight, touched the earth for a swift
moment, and by its torch she saw, far up the
shining narrowing rails, a huge tree uptorn
and lying prone across the track. She re-
membered the road Just there-the river on
one side, a rocky chasm on the other. Good
God and the western express was almost
due Was there time to stop it at Hardwck?
She would try. She rushed to the instru-
ment. The storm had deranged it it would
not respond. She wasted three precious min
utes over the battery. Suddenly she remem-
bered having seen the red lanterns ready light
ed for use. In the same instant she remem
bered also that long stretch of trestle-work
which she must cross, that open bridge, the
| dizzy and sick when she had noticed the
trackmen shufiiing heedlessly over.
For one second she hesitated. Then some
words Will Hayes had once read to her, with
| flashing eyes and deepening color, seemed
spoken audibly in his voice:
''whether on the scafold high,
Or in the battles van,
The httest place for man to die
Is where he dies for man"
She snatched up red lantern and ran-ran
as if the issues of life and death lent her feet
wings She reached the horrible trestle-
work, caught her breath, and darted on She
| felt the firm ground under her feet once more,
saw the long bridge stretch grim and awful
before her, put all her heart and strength into
a swfter flight and crossed it, swinging her
lantern high in air. For she had heard, faint
and far of, the rumble of the swift-coming
train, and knew she was racing neck and neck
with death.
! The storm beat on her uncovered head,
| half binding her. Her light summer raj
ment, soaked through and through clung
about her, hindering. Her heart throbbed so
that she seemed suGocating. She had ceased
to feel her flying feet. This running, pant
ing, aching, choking being that toiled along
so painfully, swinging its red light with its
numbed arm-could this be Rose Myrick
Oh, if her will should fail, she thought
| her will which alone seemed to bear her stiff
eniug body on And at that instant came
the sound for which her straining ears were
set-the whistle for down brakes" The en-
gineer had seen her signal Thank God, the
train was saved
But its fiery rush could not be stopped. 1t
kept the track, indeed, but struck the tree
with force that sent the smaller branches
flying like missiles, that drove o splinter full
against the breast of the slender girl still me-
ohanicaly struggling on with her beacon, and
flung her down the embankment. She felt no
hurt. She was confused, utterly exhausted (;
willing to lie there forever, so she need never
move again. She felt almost sorry to see Lam
terms moving above her, and men climbing
down to her. 1t was the conductor, whom she
knew well, who took her gently in his arms,
exclaiming;