Connecticut western news., 1883-10-31


 When the station with its din and dancing lights was left behind, however, and the long line stretched away straight before him, his occupation became but 8 mere routine so treacherously familiar that it would scarcely hold his eyes or thoughts. Mechanically he attended to his engine, with his mind straying far away from it to Dell, and then running oddly. into confused memory of the speaker at the depot, until the swift movement of the polished rods before him seemed the motion of gesticulating arms, and the sound in his ears resolved itself into measured monotonous repe- tition of meaningless words" Crooked and straight! Right side upT
 "Hello! Caught myself mapping, I do believe! Jim Barclay, what are you about? See here, Bill ito his fireman -sjust keep an eye on me, will you?'
 The young engineer shook himself, looked about him and stood stiff1y erect. He whistled Q tune vigorously to assure himself that he was wide awake. What 8 drowsy rockaby motion the train had Even the jar and rattle seemed to Hull and stupefy, though he stood erect at his post. He was glad this sort of work was nearly over. At least he hoped it WAS nearly over, for he did not see how the desired promotion could be much longer delayed, and then such calls as this would be fewer. He was looking anxiously forward to the day when he would carry the longed-for tidings to DeH. Dear little girl, how her face would brighten What cosy, happy home she could make and she said the curtains wouldn't cost anything, and hammock on the porch to rest in. Lights? Queer where the lights came from, unless-why, yes, almost to a station, of course. Dell must have put bright light in the window.
 Alas Bill had climbed back over the tender to look at suspected hot-box on the after truck.
 Shriek after shriek of warning from a steam whistle aided the flashing of the signal lights and, at last, forced their meaning upon the benumbed brain. With low cry of horror the engine was reversed, but too late to avert the crash that followed as the two freight trains were piled upon each other in common wreck.
 "What posse ssed you to run on in that fashion, man? Wereyou drunk ol crazy ?' demanded more than one rough voice as Jim stood by the track. But he only gazed with blanched face at the scene before him and answered them nothing. = s7 1-"4---Es
 "Fortunately-almost miraculously, it seemed-no one was seriously injured, J as the morning papers said in chronic. ling the occurrence. Under the same glaring headlines they also commended the promptness of the company in dis. missing "the engineer whose crimina carelessness caused the disaster, ano who, as nearly as could be learned, was comfortably sleeping at his post, and SC neglectful of all signals !"
 These were the tidings that reached Dell instead of the glad word for which she had waited.
 "What they say is true, after fash. ion," said Jim simply and sadly. q was to blame for it-and yet wasn't t. for was not fit to make the run, and told them so."
 There was no one to chronicle his years of faithful service, or the ''crimina careIessness, if not cruelty, which had placed him in such position; but these things were we'll understood among the many workers in that railroad town, an6 they acknowledged to each other, witt ready but helpless sympathy, that i was trough on poor Jim."
 Rough it surely grew as the long day. came and went, and the hope of rein statement grew dinner. ''All thos, missing men, who couldn't be found when I needed a single nights rest seemed to have turned up once more and they can spare me indefinitely" h, explained to Dell, with a pretens' of jocularity that scarcely covered tn bitterness. The brave little woman tried to comfort and encourage him though the dancing light had gone ou of her brown eyes, and new grave line were deepening about the young lips The little house they had planned scene, so like the shadowy ghost of dead hop that neither cared to talk of it any more and indeed Dell's ingenuity found ful occupation now in combating the variou wild schemes which Jim in his despera tion was constantly forming. He ha been away to. look for employment, bu business was dull everywhere at thi season; and, moreover, grown up in ths railroad town, where all interest and ir dustry centered in the shops and tracks he had belonged to the line from boy hood; he could do but the one thing, an there was little chance for a situatio elsewhere while the shadow of the grea corporations disapproval seemed to fo low him in all his efforts like blightin frost
 So the bright autumn leaves droppe from the trees, leaving only brown an barren branches; the soft haze fade from the hills; and the narrow iron track stretching away over the frozen cart toward the cold gray sky, looked to Dell sorrowful eyes fitting emblem of tn dreary life-road that lay before him.
 'I'm going away tomorrow, Jim ws saying, as they passed slowly over tn