Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-04-23

/ JcNA1
THE young LADY," said Miss Vaughn;
locking up with some surprise, for with
the words curious tremble had come
into the engineers voice, and dark
flush into his bronzcd face. ''What
young lady was that2'
! 1t was a moment or two before John
Scott answered the question.
81 don't know what she was called"
he sid, slowly. 81 never knew. She
was the Only one on the train, so we just
called her the Young lady. She was
travelling alone, but her folks had asked
! the conductor to look after her She
was gong out to some relative of hers
her brother, guess, who was sick down
to Sacramento. That was how she come
to be there"
''Wcre the children under her care?"
'No, ma'am; she was all alone, as
! told you; but she took them under her
care from the very first. They had their
fathers and mothers along--thrte of;
/ them had, at least, and the other two had
their mother and nurse girl--but som
how no one bat the young lady seemed
to be abb e to do anything with them. The
] l'OOl iIbbrt tlllliSb was Idll NItliNCNt, NOu
sec, and there wasn't anything to amusa
EN- in the dark car, and one of them,
who was sickly, fretted all day and most
all night, and the mother didn't seem to
have no faculty or no backbone to her; 8;
but whenever the young lady came
round, that sick young one and all the
-r1st would stop crying, and seem Just as
clipper as if it was simmer time out
doors and the whole train full of candy.
Il d)n't see how she dld it, " he went
on, melitativcly, throwing a shovelful of
coal in at the furnace door. Some
women is made that way, suppose. As
soon as we see how things were going and
how bad they was likely to be, that
girl kind of set herself to keep along.
She had a mighty gentle way with Lcr,
too. You'd never have guessed that she
was so plucky. Plucby! By George l
never saw anything like her pluck. "
"Wa5 she pretty" asked Miss Vaughn,
urged by truly feminine curiosity.
"Wcll, | don't know if you'd a called
her so or not We didn't think much
how she looked after the first She was
a s!cnderbuilt girl, and her face looked
sort of kind and bright both to me. Her
voice was as soft-well, as soft as a voice
can be, and it kind of sang when she felt
happy. She looked you straight in the
eyes when shespoke. | don't believe the
worst man that ever lived could have
tod that girl lie if it had been to save
his life. Her hair was brown. She was
different from girls in general, some.
| how"
81 think we may say that she was
p city," observed Miss Vaughn, with a
little smile.
Il amt 50 sure of that There's
plenty of ladies come over the road
since that suppoc folks would say was
better looking than she was. But l
never see any face quite like hers. 1t
was still, like lake. and you seemed to
feel as if there was depths to it. And
the farther you went down, the swceter
it got. She rever made any rustling
when she walked She wasn't that kind "
Another pause, which Miss Vaughn
was careful not to break.
81 don't know what them childr, II
would "a done without her." went on
the engineer, as if talking to himself
Then, with sudden energy: II don't
without her. The only trouble was that
she couldn't be everywhere at once
There was sick lady in the drawing
room at the end of one of the Pullmans
She had weak lungs, and was going out
to California for her health. Well, the
cold and the snow brought on hemor-
rhaga. 7 at was the second day after
we was block ,ded. There wasn't no
! doctor on DO rd, and her husband he
was mighty scre1. He come through
to the front car to fin | the condu tor.
looking as pales a ghost MY wife's
a-dying, said he. Amt there no med
seal man on the trainn And when we
slid no, he just gave a groan. Then
she mu It die he said. Great heavens
why did | bring her on this fatal jour
neyP
" Perhaps the young lady'll have some
remedies, suggested one of the porters
for we'd all got into the way already of
turning 10th young lady whenever things
were wrong.
"Wcll, | went for her, and you never
see any one 50 cve-headcd rs she seemed
| to lie She knew Just what to do; and
she Ia the right medicine in her bag {;
and in less than an hour that poor lady
w quite comfortable, ana her husband
/ TIE most rcli we'd man that ever was
Then the young lady come along to where
| was standin there wa mt nothing for
me to do, but was waiting, for | didn't
! know bIt there mi yht be -and said she /:
Mr.. Scott, | am growing anxious about
the fuel, DO you think there is plenty to
la,t2 Suppose we were to be kept here a
wcekn
Now, Just think of it! not one of us
dumb fools had III ought of that. You
see, we was expecting to be relieved from
hour to hour, for we had telegrdphed both
ways, and the snow had stopped by that
time, and none OF us had any notion it
was going 10 be the job it was to dig us
out Only the young lady had the sense
to remember that it might take longer
than we WIS calculating on.
"Says /, 'if we aIe kept here week
there won't be shove ful of Goals left
for any Of the fires, let alone the engine.
Then don't you think, says she, in
her soft voice, that it would be wise
pan to get all the passengers together in
ole car, and keep u good fire up there,
and let the other stoves go out2 It's no
matter if we are a | tile crowded, says
she
'Wel, of course it was the only thing
to do, as we see at once when it was put
into cur heads. We took the car the
sick lady was in, so's she'd not have to be
disturbed, and we made up beds for the
children, and somehow all the passengers
managed to pack in, train hands and all
1t was a tight squeeze, but that didn't