The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-08-08

fatner had not come aboard.
Why mad he not thought Of this be-
foreP A wildthrill of hoperan through
his heart, he could scarce wait for the
train to come up; why should hep he
could run down to the Tuck junctions
and get on the cars there; so OFF he went
again at fuH speed, and boarded the
train the instant it slowed.
'Is my little Lofty aboardP" call
ed eagerly, turninga q white, worn face
and hungry eyes toward Conductor
Smith, who stood in the caboose door
"No, sir; nobody but them you see
settin' before you,n smiled the con-
ductor, quite unaware Of the. agony his
answer gave the expeetant father. -
Mr.. Park dropped into a seat that was
luckily vacant close beside him. There
| was no child there, but a small boy of
about Lotty's age-a boy as black as
black could be, who turned and looked
at him with grin.
+ Mr.. Park laughed; he was so tired,
50 anxious, so cruelty disappointed, that
he laughed aloud, but it was laugh
worse than a cry.
l. Everybody turned to look at him, but
| the train stopped. and being close to the
door, he got out first, went over to the
freight station, sat down on q cheese
box, and leaned his head against a
beam, entirely worn out.
The freight-master asked him some
trivial Kindly question, but the poor
man shook his head silently he could
not speak so the other wenf his way
| and let him alone. He saw that some
thing was the matter he could neither
meddle with or help, but he told his
wife that night that he did wonder what
| allied Park; for he never saw such q
face in all his life as his was that day.
1t seemed as if the afternoon never
would 90 by; he heard three o'clock
| strike from somebody's house near by,
and as the minutes wore on he thought
| that the clock had run down. but he
/ pulled out his watch and it was q quar-
| ter of four. Almost time for the West
ern train to come in; then arose the
question in his mind whether the sus-
pense would be shortened If he got on
that train and went down to East Hart
land to wait for the evening train out.
He would know sooner, but what would
he know? Was a horrible certainty
easier to bear than suspense2
Some'men would have accepted the
alternative at once, but he shrank from
it, partly because he was weakened and
worn with the terrible strain of the last
make the exertion partly because, like
more than half tie other people in the
world, he wanted-to delay shock that
was probable as long as it could be
done. =
The train steamed in; he heard the
hotel-porters crying out their short,
sharp Invitations; he heard laughter,
the buzz of tongues, the driving off of
carts and carriages, the clatter of an
unruly horses hoofs, and the obiurga-
tons of his driver, but he never lifted
his weary head ~
His thoughts took a new turn he
went back to the day Lofty was first
laid in his arms, q little, helpless, fret
ting baby of day old. But how proud
he was of his girl, even from her baby
hood how he had watched every new
trick, and laughed with delight at her
broken baby-language! how scared she
was at the locomotives the first time he
took her down on the platform, hiding
her fair head in his breast and sobbing
/ with terror .--sses.
Poor little soufi he wondered If she
had been frightened when she fell off
the train, or if she had been spared that
terror by instant death. He shuddered
at the idea, and made a great effort to
4
fancies that haunted him. He got up
and walked up and down the freight
depot, then he went over to the waiting
room, picked up New York paper
somebody had left behind, and sat reso-
lutely down to read it. There was a
great deal of news, in that paper. but
| he never knew it. All he saw was
"LottyI dear little Lofty! lost Lottyr'
The words seemed to dance up and
down the columns everywhere. A boy
came along with apples; he bought one
of them and tried to eat it, but it choked
him.
Time would fail me to tell of his efforts
to make the day fly; it only crept the
slower. His very agony wore itself out
at length; he was dull and dumb, like
one who walks in bad dream. e
At last the half-hour after five came,
and he rose from the box where he had
been sitting on the street side of the
\ station, and went round to the railway
| platform where the cars would come in.
The wind was in his favor; it blew
| from the southeast, When he had
stared at the clook-face in the waiting
room, through the window, at least fifty
| times, and counted out ten minutes, he
heard distant shrek of the whistle,
and his heart ..tood still a Only ten
minutes morei for the train was due at
But Whist niinutesl Temp there were
ten hundred of them at the leasti and
thenA there IL came - slowing care
fully up to the platform, and there was
Tom Scott's pleasant face, and his ath-
letic figure at the door of the car, ready
to hand out trunks. 3, Miro III
Toni Tom Scottr' cried strange,
hoarse voice, as man pushed fiercely
through the astonished crowd TO the
baggage-car, where's my girl? where
is totty?" Dis;f ~ Ai5't7 s.t' ~
s.Lottyr' calculated Tom, pausing in
the act of sliding q big trunk to the
platform.
.sLottyl why, man alive, where do
you s'pose she is? to home, amt she?
where she'd oughter be."
ibid you fetch her. her, Il mean,
on the 2. 10 tramp n - - IS -
ssBless your crazy souli never took
heri When see you didn't get aboard
this noon Jest took an dropped her
INTO Georges arms-he stood there
alookin' on; and sez 1, Take her hum,
George; he amt a-going to-day, as /
see.' So he ketched her and went of
with her. Didn't she kick thought"
And Tom Scott lsughedsat the recollec-
ton.
Mr.. Park would have liked to knock
him down on the spot; but the relief,
the revulsion, was so great he had scarce
strength to drag himself up into the car.
A few pants of the engine, a short tug
up the heavy grade, and they Were at
West Waring station, and there, rum
ming across the street toward the sta
ton, rosy, dancing, smiling, came Lost
Lotty.-Rose Terry Cooke, IN Youths
Companion.
Peas In the Fall.