The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-05-26
THE ENGINEERS STORY.
BY SUSAN COOLIDGE.

'This is about it., said John Scott,
the engineer, as the train slowly crested
long, gradual grade. "You're atop o.
the Rocky mountains now, maam."
Emily Vaughn looked to the left and
TO the right, and was conscious of feel
ing of disappointment. She had pictured
the top of the Rocky mountains as some
thing quite different from this. Here
were no frowning heights or sudden CULTS,
only wide rolling platca1, some distant
peaks which did not look very high, and
far ahead a glimpse of lower levels run
ming down into plains. 1t seemed hardly
worth while to have come so far for SO
little.
'Really!" she said. 'But where are
the mountains2 They don't look nearly
so high as they did ycstcrdayr'
Naturally, ma'am," responded the
engineer; "things don't appear so high
when you're as high as they are. We're
atop. you know"
''But there's no look-off, no wonderful
distance, as from the top of Mount
Washington. 1 confess l am disap-
pointed"
'1f's kind of queer" said John Scott
with a dry chuckle, chow folks from the
East keep alluding to that ere little hin
.S if it were the standard of measure.
ment. We don't think so much of it this
way Why, ma'am, you're about two
thousand feet higher at this minute than
II you was at the top of that little shuck
OF Mount Washington that they all
think so much of.
Miss Vaughn smiled, but she expert
enced shock nevertheless. The New
England mind does not easily accustom
itself to hearing its sacred mountain thus
lightly spoken against
Have you ever seen Mount Washing
ton2" she asked.
ooh, bless you, yes" replied John
Scott, cheerfully. 81 was raised over to
Fryeburg, and grew up alongside of it.
thought it was pretty big concern
when was boy, but now" He closed
the sentpce with shoi5 aexpressive
laugh.
Miss Vaughn changed the subject. She
was not offended She had grown to
like this rough, geBd-natured engineer
in the course of the three days journey,
during which, favored as relative of
one of the directors of the road, she had
several times been privileged to ride, as
now, in the engineers cab for a better
view of the country.
"Have you been long on this road!"
she asked.
'Pretty near ever since it opened. 1
run the third through train that come
out from Chicago, and l haven't been off
the line since, winter or summer, except
three months when 1 was laid up with g.
broken leg"
"This must look very differently in
winter" said Miss Vaughn, noting the
treeless distances, and the snow still
glittering on the higher peaks to the left.
''You may believe it does That first
year, when the snow-sheds wasn't built.
i. was terrible. l was running that train
that stuck in the snow seven days-per-
hap you'll remember about it; it was in
all the papers. sha'n't ever forget that.
not if Tive to be as old as my grand
father, and he didn't die till he was
ninety odd"
''Tell me aboutit," said Miss Vaughn,
persuasiyely, seating herself on the high
side bench of the cab, with that air Oh
attention which is so enticing to the
story-teller; amusements are few and far
between in the long monotony of the
overland journey to California; beside
which, Miss Vaughn dearly loved a
story.
There amt much to tell, " said John
Scott with something of the feeling
which prompts the young vocalist to
{ mplo.n of hoarseness. Il amt any
hand at telling things, either.n Then,
won by Miss Vaughn's appealing eyes, he
continued:
"We ran all fair and on time till we
was about two hundred miles beyond
Omaha. Then the snow began. 1t didn't
seem much at first The women-fofk in
the train rather liked it. They all crowded
to the windows to see, and the children
hurrahed, Anything seemed a pleasant
ch'nge after the sage e-brush, | suppose.
But as it went on coming, and the drifts
grew deep, and the cars had to run slow.
the older ones began to look serious, aud
can tell you that we who had the charge
of the tram felt so.
''We was Just between two of the feed
ing stations, and we put on all the steam
we could, hoping to push thro' gl 10
where provisions could be got at in case
we had to stop. But it want no use.
The snow kept coming. never see it
come so. The flakes looked as big as
saucers, and it drifts piled SO quick that,
when we finally stuck, in about ten min
utes no one could see out of the win
nows. The train would have been clear
buried over if TIC brakemen and the por-
ters hadn't gone the whole length over
the roofs every half-hour, and swept itoff
with brooms and shoyels. We had lot
of shoyels aboard, by good luck, or else
nothing could have saved MS from being
banked up outright But it was terrible
hard work, | can tell you. There want
No more laughing among the passengers