The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-03-15
THE ENGINEERS STORY.


Business had brought me to the little
town OF D., among the New Hamp-
shire hills, and here, much aga nSt my
will. | was deta ned for several days,
VIII lie waiting for instructions from my
employers. The nearest periodical
store was twelve miles away, and, with
out books or papers, time hung heavy
ON my hands.
The only break in nv mOnotonous
life was the arrival of the trains twice a
day, and in the dead calm of my exist
ence this little ripple of exc tement be-
came as much to me as the opera under
more ia orable circumstances 1t was
while lounging upon the plat 'orm that
i became acquainted with George Sea
forth, engineer on the h. {. Il M. Rail
road. He was a man about thirty-tive
years of age. Not what would be called
an educated man, but sensible and
clear headed. His home was in Con-
cord, where he had wife and two chill
dren He ran from Con ord to D.,
and for two hours, while waiting for
the "down train" he was in D..
The acquaintance. at first begun to
while away an idle hour, on my pa t,
at least, grew to strong liking, and to-
day there is no one among my acquaint
ances for whom feel greater respect
and esteem than for George Seaforth.
He had been on the cars since he was
sixteen, first as train-boy, then as brake
man, fireman, and for the last ten years
as engineer.
"You must have had some strange
adventures in that time" l said one
day, as we sat upon the platform of the
little station. waiting for the train.
Strange adventures he repeated,
taking his pipe from his mouth, and
looking meditatively across the green
fields. ''Strange adventures! You may
well say that, sir. We train men are
always having adventures"
''Suppo e you tell me some of them"
l suggested.
well" looking at his watch, las
there's plenty of time. don't mind tell
ing you of one queer one had six YEARS
ago, come fall, though ] don't often
speak o. it; for you see when a man s
been face to face with death, he can't
talk of it very we'll"
settled myself on the rough bench
that did duty as a chair, as comfortably
as 1 could, took fresh cigar, and he
began:
at happened in this way. was run
ming the old Lion from Lee to Fairtown.
If you know anything about New En-
gland, you know that September's a
gre month for fairs, and this particu
Tar September was no exception to the
general rule. We had lots of extra
work to do, but. as we had extra pay,
there was no grumbling. 1t was toward
the last of the month that the fair al
M came Of. Two or three extras
were put on, timed so as to run BET tween
the regular trains Jim Turner fire fol
ne then. Jim was as good fellow as
ever lived, with but one fault he
would 90 off on "a time once in g
while. He didn't do it very often. and
as he'd do more work than any othel
man on the road, the company KEEP
him. But Jim had been pretty sober
lately. / believe he hadn' drunk any.
thing for as much as SIX months; so
kind of got out of the habit of atchine
him, and he went and came pretty much
as he chose.
well, we got along all right this
time, till Almost night we stopped a
D. for wood and water. While we
were waiting. March, the depot-master
came along, and says he. 'Seaforth,
want you to do me favor"
"'What is it?' " says I, for Marcel
and | were pretty good friends.
"'Well, says he, there's a young
woman here who wants TO go to Fair
town, and she hasn't cent of money
She came here to get work, and she'i
lost her pocket-book, and hasn't any
way to get back home. / don't feel a
liberty to pass her over the road
(they'd been making row about free
.passesl, aud she ant the kind tina
you d feel like offering money to. So
/ thought may be you'd let her ride on
the engine
well, | didn't like to refuse March
for. as / said before, he and | were
good friends, and he had done me
many good turn; but l must say the
idea of having woman in the cab al
the way to Fairtown want very
pleasant. and said so to March, bu
he was bound to have her go, and sale
SO much that finally told him to br nc
her along. She came out upon the
platform, little. pale faced thing, whC
looked at me with great, frigh eneC
eyes, as though she thought / was /;
bear. and would eat her up as soon al
we left the station. March introdu &c
her as Miss Lord. and seemed TO ex
peet me to say something to make her
feel at home, but was all out of sorts,
and j only nodded in a surly sort o.
way. / saw The tears come into hel
eyes. and you better believe l felt kind
OF mean. but l didn't say anyth ny,
and March helped her on the engine,