St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-07-01
ssTHE YOUNG LADY,



"This is about it," said John Scott,
the engineer, as the train slowly crest
ed long gradual grade. "YOu're atop
of the Rocky mountains now, maam."
Emily Vaughn looked to left and to
right, and was conscious of feeling of
disappointment. She had pictured the
top of the Rocky mountains as some
thing quite different from this. Here
were no frOwning nights or sudden
CULTS, only a wide rolling plateau,
some distant peaks which did not look
very high, and far ahead a glimpse of
lower levels running down into plains.
1t seemed hardly worth while to have
come so far for so little.
Really !" she said, "But where are
the mountains They don't look near
ly so high as they did yesterday ~
Naturally, ma,am," responded the
engineer; "things don't appear so high
atop you know"
"But there's no loOk-Off, no wonder
full distance, as from the top of Mt.
Washington. / confess L am disap-
pointed"
"Its kind of queer" said John Scott,
with a dry chuckle, Chow folks from
the East keep abiding to that ERE lit
tie hill as if it were the standard of
measurement. We don't think so much
of it this way. Why, ma'am you're
about 1000 feet higher at this minute
than if you was at the top of that little
shuck of IA Mt. Washington that they
all think SO much Of"
Miss Vaughn smiled, but she expert
enced shock nevertheless. The New
England mind does not easily accus-
tom itself to hearing it's sacred noun
tain thus lightly spoken against. "Have
you ever seen Mt. Washington 2" she
asked.
"Oh, bless you, yes ~ replied John
Scott, cheerfully. was raised over to
Fryeburg, and grew up alongside of it.
| thought it was "a pretty big concern
when l was a boy, but now" He
closed the sentence with a short, ex-
pressive laugh.
Miss Vaughn changed the subject.
She was not offended. She had grown
to like this rough, gOOdnatured engi-
neer in the course of the three days
Journey, during which, favored as a
relative of one of the directors of the
road, she had several times been priv
LEGGED to ride, as now, in the engi-
neer's cab for a better view of the
country.
"Have you been long on this road 2"
she asked.
"Pretty near ever since it opened. |
run the third through train that came
out from Chicago, and L haven't been
off the line since, winter or summer,
except for three months when l was
laid up with broken leg"
"This must look very different in
winter" said Miss Vaughn, noting the
treeless distances, and the SHOWS still
glinting on the higher peaks to the left.
"YOu may believe it does That
first year, when the snOw-sheds wasn't
built, it was terrible. | was running
that train that stuck in the snow seven
days-perhaps you'll remember about
it; it was in all the papers. | sha'n't
ever forget that, not if | live to be as
old as my grandfather, and he didn't
die till he was 90 odd"
"Tell me about it," said Miss Vaughn,
persuasively, seating herself on the
high side bench of the cab, with that
air of attention which is so enticing to
the story teller; amusements are few
and far between i'll the long mOnOtOny
of the overland journey to California;
besides 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
complain of hOarseness. 81 amt any
hand at telling things, either" Then
won by Miss Vaughn's appealing eyes,
he continued
eve ran all fair and on time till we
was about 200 miles beyond Omaha.
Then the snow began. 1t didn't seem
much at first. The wOmen-folk in the
train rather liked it. They all crowd
ed to the windows to see, and the chill
dren hurrahed. Anything seemed a
pleasant change after the ebrush, |
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, and | can tell you that
we who had charge of the train felt so.
We was just between two of the
feeding stations, and we put on all the
steam we could, hoping to push through
to 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 the drifts piled so
quick that, when we finally stuck, in
about 10 minutes no one could see out
of the windows. The train would have
been clear buried over if the brake
men and the porters hadn't gone the
whole length over the roofs every half
hour, and swept it off with bI ooms and
shOvels. We had lot of shovels
aboard, by good luck, or else nothing
could have saved us from being bank
ed outright. But it was terrible hard
work, l can tell you. There WANT no
more laughing among the passengers
by the time it come to that, and the
children stopped hurrahing."
"Oh, the poor little things! What
did they do ? Were there many on
board Was there plenty for them to
eat 2"
"That was the worst of it. There
wasn't plenty for any one to eat. We
stuck just midway of the feeding sta
tiOns, and there wasn't great deal of
anything on board besides what the
passengers had in their lunch baskets.
One lady she had a tin of condensed
milk, and they mixed that up for the
babies-there was 10 of 'em-and SO
they got on pretty well. But there
was about five other children, not ba-
bies, but quite little, and | don't know
what they would have done if it hadn't
been for the young lady"
"The young lady !" said Miss Vaughn,
looking up with some surprise, for
with the words curious tremble had
come into the engineers voice, and a
dark flush into his bronzed face. "What
young lady was that Z"
1t was a moment or two before John
Scott answered the question.
al don't know what she was called"
ba said slowly 81 never Enaw She