The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-01-08

AANSx xAS Il NIDA J. JAN "
til the warming "All aboard" sounded,
and bade her good-by.
Ida leaned back and watched the
slowly receding depot rather wearily.
She was not especially fond of travel
ing-certainly not of travelling alone.
She wished the day were done with,
and she were at home.
She was not sure that she did not
wish she had never come. OF course,
che had had q charming time. But
that had made the coming away all
the harder.
She had SO hated to leave it all! She
did not ask herself what, or whom it
was that she most regretted leaving.
The conductors demand for her
ticket broke uI these lugubrious rev.
cries. He gave it q glance and then
said with O solemnity befitting the oc-
casion:
you're on the wrong road, miss.
This ticket is for the B. l.. &C. Road"
Ida returned his half amused look
with a gaze of disnayed bewilder-
ment.
"What shall I do?" she said, faint
ly.
The conductor was young, and by no
means proof against a perfect face
and pleading gray eyes. He leaned
toward her alphabetically.
"Your train," he said, 'swont leave
Crosby. till 1890 o'clock. You can
get off at the next station and take
the 10 o'clock express back there in
time to get it,"
He passed on, with q reassuring nod.
Ida resigned herself. with sigh.
How exactly like Uncle Harvey the
blunder had been! Ii she had been
alone, she would never have made the
mistake. She would have held fast
to the time table, and there would
have been no such dreadful balk. She
felt something of evaporation.
The conductor assisted her from the
car at the next station.
"You've only half an hour to wait, {"
he said, encouragingly.
Half an hour-yes; but half an hour
in dreadful little station, with dusty
benches, o asplintery floor and grimy
windows, was not SO amusing.
Ida was the sole occupant of the
small room. She could hardly have
told afterward, how she passed the
time.
She sat down in one of the uncom-
Portable seats and counted the boards
in the floor; she scratched her name on
the window with the small diamond in
her ring-a proceeding which, under
any circumstances, she would have
condemned as highly ill-bred; and she
went out and paced up and down the
little platform.
A house just visible down the road
reminded her family of Uncle Har-
vey's, and her thoughts roved back
over the past summer, and naturally
to Arthur Clifford.
After all, she mused, he was rather
an odd person. Almost anybody else
would have made another attempt,
in spite OF a first refusal. She could
think of n dozengirls who had married
the very persons they had at first re-
jected.
Not that she should have accepted
Mr.. Clifford in any case; but it was GER
tainly quecr-his never having tried
again. Perhaps he had not wanted
to. Yes, that was it; he had not
cured to. Probably he had beenglad,
on second thoughts, that she had re-
fused him. Undoubtedly.
| The passengers on the train which
stopped presently noted q soft pen
siveness i'll the pretty young lady who
entered.
A young husband whispered to his
wife that she must have suffered tho
recent loss OF near and dear relative;
but she responded that q brown dress,
n hat i'll varying tints OF yellow ard
saffron colored gloves, were hardly
compatible with that theory.
lda's depression remained mys-
terry.
Almost the first person she saw in
the bustling Crosby Depot was Uncle
Harvey, walking aimlessly up and
down. He stared at her vaguely as
she placed her hand on his arm, with
q bewildercd "Bless my soul!'
Ida explained the situation briefly,
and, be it said to her credit, with per-
feet good nature; but Uncle Harvey
was overcome with remorse.
"What q blunder!" he calculated.
"Bless me! How could have made
it?"
The idea fitted through his neice's
head that he was precisely the person
most likely to have made it, but she
merely smiled.
II mustn't miss my train now, at
any rate" sho said. at must be
very nearly time for it,
ayes, yes!" rejoined Uncle Harvey.
"Certainly I'll see about it right
away"
His near sighted eyes, rowing about
the depot, caught sight OF an old gen.
tleman from Brackenbridge, a special
friend of his.
"Well, there's Channing-haven't
seen him for weekw he calculated.
"Just wait till speak to him a mo-
ment," and he darted off.
Ida waited five minutes-ten. A
train moved slowly out. Could it have
been hers? Ida grew rather nervous.
She knit her brows, hesitated, and
finally joined her uncle.
"Ah, your train, my dear!" said
Uncle Harvey, briskly, as he perceived
her. "I'll see about it,"
He started off with business.like
air, but he came back slowly.
cts gone!" he announced, in a
dazed way. event just this minute,
they say. Idon't see how it happen.
ed! never made such q blunder be-
FORE"
Ida gasped, and stood staring ut
her uncle in despairing helplessness.
Then, pulling herself together, she
turned to q railroad official standing
near, who said, glancing at her ticket,
in response to her agitated inquiry,
that her next available train was due
at 1.
Two hours and half! But there
was no help for it.
She should not feel safe, however,
till Uncle Harvey was we'll out of the
way; she felt that he was quite capa-
BILE of leading her into third blunder.
She interrupted his flood of specula-
~ L 4. 4