The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-06-16
THE ENGINEERS STORY.
[Hsrper's Bszar.l

Harpers Bazaar.
This is about it," said John Scott, the en-
gineer, as the train slowly crested long,
gradual grade. You're atop of the Rocky
Mountains now, ma'am.''
This must look very differently in win
ter" said Miss Vaughn, noting the treeless
distances, and the snow 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
~ the snow seven days-perhaps you'll re-
enber about it; it was in all the papers. L
mt ever forget that, not if l live to be as
as my grandfather, and he didn't die till
vas ninety odd"
Tell me about it, said Miss Vaughn,
-ussively, seating herself on the high
bench of the cab, with that air of at
on which is so inticing to the story tel
smusements are few and far between in
png monotony of the overland journey
slifornia; besides which, Miss Vaughn
loved story.
bere amt much to tell" said John
with something of the feeling which
pts the young vocalist to complain of
.eness. 81 amt any hand at telling
IS, either" Then, won by Miss Vsughn's
.aling eyes, he continued
We ran all fair and on time till we was
at 200 miles beyond Omaha. Then the
began. 1t didn't seem much at first
- women folk in the train rather liked it.
~ all crowded to the windows to see,
4 the children hurrahed. Anything
tmed a pleasant change after the sage
ush, / suppose. But as it went on COM
ug and the drifts grew deep, and the cars
ad to run slow, the older ones began to
ook serious, ana L can tell you that we who
nad charge of the train felt so.
I'VE 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. l 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 ten minutes no one could see out of
the windows The train would have been
clear buried if the brakemen and the porters
hadn't gone the whole length over the roofs
every half hour and swept it off with brooms
and shovels. We had lot of shoyels aboard,
by good luck, or else nothing could have
SdNcO Us lTOIu DclDR DdukcQ up OuITlRnJ.
But it was terrible hard work, 1 can tell YOU.
There want no more laughing among the
passengers by the time it come to 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?'
THAT was the worst of it. There wasn't
plenty for any one to eat We had stuck
midway of the feeding stations, and there
wasn't great deal OF anything on board be-
sides what the passengers had in their lunch
baskets. One lady she had q tin of con-
densed milk, and they mixed that up for the
babies-there was ten of 'em-and so they
got on pretty well. But there was about five
other children, not babies, but qdite little,
and l 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 a curious tremble had come into the
engineers voice, and dark flush into his
bronzed face. "What young lady was that?''
1t was moment or two before John Scott
answered the question.
81 don't know what she was called" he
said, 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 going out to some
relative OF hers-her brother, guess, who
was SICK OOWu 10 CaCram6QLO. mat was
how she came to be there"
Were the children under her carer
mo- ma'am she was all alone, as l told
you; but she took them under her care from
the very first. They had their fathers and
mothers along-three of them had at least,
and the other two had their mother and a
nurse girl-but somehow no one but the
young lady seemed to be able to do any
thing with them. The poor little things
was half starved, you see, and
there wasn't anything to amuse 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; but whenever the young
lady came around that sick one and all the
rest would stop crying and seem just as chip
per as if it was summer time out doors and
the whole train full of candy.
81 don't see how she did 1t" he went on
meditatively, 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 her, too. You'd never have guessed
that she was so plucky. Plsckyl By
George. / never saw anything like her
pluck"
''Was she prettyg' asked Miss Vaughn.
urged by truly feminine curiosity.
"cAi, oUn nno" a you SoAA AoA
so or not. We didn't think much how she
looked after the first. She was a slender
built 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 she
spoke. / don't believe the worst man that
ever lived could have told that girl lie IL it
had been to save his life. Her hair was
brown. She was different from girls In gen.
eral, somehow"
81 think we may say that she was pretty"
observed Miss Vaughn, with little smile.
III amt SO sure of that There's plenty of