The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-10-08

feeding stations. and put on all the
steam we ecould hoping to push through
to where provisins could be got at in
case we had to stop. But it wasn't t
no use. The snow kept coming. /
never see it come so. The flakes look
ed rs 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
over II the brakeman 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 a
lot OF shovels aboard. by good luck,
or nothing else could have saved us
from being banked up outright. But it
was terrible hard work, / can tell
you. There wasn't no more Laughing
among the passengers by the time it
come to that, and the children stop
ped 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 oft. There
wasn't plenty for any one to eat. We
had stuck just midway of the feeding
stations, and there wasn't o 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 ten
OF 'em-and so they got on pretty
we'll. But there was about FIVE other
children, not babies, but quite little,
and don't know what they would
have done if it hadn't been for the
young lady"
heyoung lady" said Miss Vaughn,
looking up with some surprise, for
with the words curious tremble had
come into the engineers voice, and
dark flush into his bronzed face.
What young lady was that?" W
1t was a moment or two before
John Scott answered the question.
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, l guess, who was
sick down to Sacramento. That was
how she come to be there"
Were the children under her care2"
mo, 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
three OF them had, at least, and the
other two had their mother and a
nurse.glrl-but somehow no one
but the young lady seemed to be
able to do anything with them.
The poor little things was
half starved you sees and there wasn't
anything to amuses 'ein 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 round,
that sick young one and all the rest
would stop crying, and seem Just ms
clipper as if it was Summertime out
doors and the whole train full of
candy.
u don't see how she did it, he went
on, meditatively, throwing shovelful
of coal in at The furnace door. "Some
women is made that way, l suppose.
AS soon as we see how things were 60
ing, and how bad they were likely to
be, that girl kind OF set herselflto keep
along. She had a mighty gentle way
with her, too. You'd never have
guessed that she was so plucky.
Pluckyl By George, never saw any
thing like her pluck"
"Was she pretty?" asked Miss
Vaughn, urged by q true feminine
curiosity. 81
swell, l don't know ifyou'd a called
her so or not. She was a slender. built
girl, and her face looked sort OF kind
and bright both to ME. Her voice was
as soft we'll, 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 be-
ileye the worst man ever lived could
have told that girl allie if it had been
to save his life. Her hair was brown.
She was different from girls in general,
somehow
Il think we must say that she was
pretty" observed Miss Vaughn, with
a smile.
:. ouA ~ oIIo Vi CIldC. ln6re
plenty of ladies come over the road
since that Isuppose folks would say
was better looking than she was,
hut l never see any face quite
like hers. It was still like lake,
and you seemed to feel as if there
was depth to it. And the farther
you went down the sweeter it got.
She never made any rustling when she
walked. She wasn't that kind"
Another pause, which Miss Vaughn
was careful not to break. z
II don't know what them children
would "a done without her." went on
the engineer, as if talking to himself.
Then, with sudden energy, .1 don't
know what any OF US would q done
without her. The only trouble was
she couldn't be everywhere at once.
There wasa sick lady in the drawing
room at the end OF one of the Pull.
mans. She had weak lungs, and was
going out to California for her health.
Well, the cold and the snow brought
on a hemorrhage. That was the Sec