Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-05-15
LOVE AND LIGHTNING.

Lefty Brooks put aside the white muslin
curtain and looked out Of the little window
OF the telegraph Office at Smyrna station a.
the afternoon accommodation pufed and rat
tied up to its stopping place.
"Who's come, sic p asked a very young
boy, whose likeness proclaimed near kinship
TO the girl and whose manner readily deter
mined him as that most unpleasant variety Of
the genus a privileged brother.
Nobody you know, Sammy" replied the
sister, vainly imagining that she had thus
satisfied an inquiry born Of only too shrewd
Interpretation OF the expectant glance with
which her face had greeted the incoming
train. Run out and get the paper"
"Oh, no Billy johnson aint running, and
OF course there amt nobody there, retorted
the boy aud with this crudely humorous al
lusion to the supposed favor with which Lefty
regarded a certain Oung engine-driver he un-
curled himself from the table and tumbled out
the door to do her bidding.
For all typographical purposes, Smyrna sta
ton is but a small dot on the railway map,
and its function in the great economy OF traf-
fc and transportation is that OF q depot of
wood and water for the refreshment OF the
motive power of freight trains. The iron
bond Of a long single track unites in wedlock
two cities who quarrel like husband and wife
for supremacy as the commercial metropolis,
while similarly Joined in indissouble inter
ests and the little village, too far distant
from either to share in contingent greatness.
and even lacking the independent importance
Of half way station, quietly sleeps between
its hills with it's river trailing OF at one side,
awakened twice daily by the shrek of the
fast express and occasionally contributing a
passenger TO the leisurely accommodation
train. In winter there really seems no reason
for its existence and it hibernates, its sub
tropical name being Knocked by the reigning
dssolAtion. In summer there is a certain
awakening OF agriculture and a temperance
Of natives in cotton shirts and pantaloons.
At this g. ason, too, there is the advent Of the
city scions OF two of the formerly great fami-
lies of the neighboring country, who keep
green the memories Of their bucolic ancestors
by occupying the homesteads, stately in an
old fashioned way with two storied columns
across their broad fronts, that stand on the
heights at the other end of the town.
Summer it is, and the very heat OF it, when
Miss Florence Van Amden shakes the creaseE
and the cinders from her pongee travelling
suit, after alighting from the train, with a
weary look on her yelled face and a begrimed
novel In her gloved hand and Lefty, from
behind her curtain, knows that this solitary
passenger is Miss Florence Van Amden as
well a. do Tom Porter and his sister, who
have come to meet the traveller with the fam.
/ lily carriage. For, although this lady is un'
accompanied, she has by no means come un-
heraded. Care is unneceRsary in the con
signment OF such precious goods and this
explains why Lefty, peering out from the win
| dow OF the telegraph office, wears a face or
| which realized anticipation rather than sur
| prise appears as the travel-stained figure
| sweeps across the platform. For Lefty is the
| repository of all the secrets that flash from
town 10 town along the humming wires. She
has but TO turn the switch of the little instru
ment resting on her desk, and there poui
| forth prices current and political nominations
orders for arrest on their way to Outstrip the
criminal in his flight and kindly messages o
friendly appointment, brief tales of death anG
congratulations on the coming of the first
born-all ticked out in the unsympatheti'
monotone whose dots and dashes and silenoeI
speak words to her trained ear.
1t is the railroad that has given Smyrna III
telegraph, and Letty's occupation is so gene
rally confined TO the business of the road-tC
receiving orders from the train-despatoher Il
"hold No T." to keep the track clear fo
down special, or that mo. has the righ
of way 10 FlaXboro', which il is her duty Il
COPY in triplicate and deliver to the station
master-that purely social message, eominI
direct TO Smyrna and stopping there, insteat
of gliding on to the end Of the line, make
an Impression on her memory. There haV
been at least q score of these unusual mes
sages, all relating to Miss Van Amden's visit
which Lefty has sent TO Squire Porter's grea
house, and at last she beholds the subject o
80 much despAtching alight from the train.
Socially considered, Miss Van Amden is
more important subject of description thai
the telegraph operator of Smyrna station
Especially would she be 80 were she at thi
moment Attired in some one of the toilet
hidden In the mountainous trunk before whio
the station. master of this unsophisticated vii
lage stands AghAst. But all that Lefty sees