The Penn's Grove record., 1886-08-14

Ihey would nave uOu6 IL ~ houh DOSh
for the young lady,"
"The young ladyp' said Miss Waugh,
looking up with some surprise, for with
tie words a curious tremb.e had come
into the engineers voice, and q dark
flush into his bronze face. "What
young lady was THAR"
1t was a moment or two before John
Scott ar swered the question.
81 don't know what she wa called"
he said slowly. Il never knew. She
was the only one on the train, so we
just called her the young lady. She
was travelling alone, but her Ok
lal asked the conductor TO look AFTER
her. She was going out to some relative
of hers-her brother, | guess, who was
sick down to Sacramento. That was
how she came to be there"
''No, ma'am: she vas all alone, as l
told you; but she took them under her
care from the first. They had their
fathers aud 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 anything with
them. The poor little things was half
starved, you see, and there wasn't any
thing to amuse 'em 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 clipper as If 1t was
summer time outdoors and the whole
train full of candy.
81 don't see how she did IT., " he went
on, mediJatively, throwing a shovelful
of coal in at the furnace door. "Some
women is made that way, | suppose.
AS soon as we seen 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 she WAS so plucky. Pluckyl'
BY George, l never saw anything like
her pluck"
"Was she p~retty?" asked Miss
Vaughn, urgcl by a truly feminine
Curiosity.
well, 1 don't know if you'd a
called her 50 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 1t
kind of sang when she felt happy. She
looked you straight in the eyes when
she spoke. 1 don't believe the worst
man that ever lived could have told the
girl a lie if it had been to save his lite.
Her hair vas brown. She was differ
ent from girls in general. somehow"
81 think we may say that she was
pretty" observed Miss Vaughn, with a
little smile.
81 amt so sure of that. There's
plenty of ladies come over the road
since that l suppose folks would say
was better looking than she was. But
| never see any face quite like hers.
1t was still, like a lake, and you seemed
to feel as if there was depths init. 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.
AZ don't know what them children
would "a done Without her, went on
the engineer, as If talking to himself.
Then, with sudden energy; 81 don't
know What any of us would "a done
without her. The only trouble was
that she couldn't be everywhere at
once. There was a sick lady in the
drawing room at the end of n OF the
Pullmans. She had weak lungs and
was going out to California for her
health. Well, the cold and the snow
brought on hemorrhage. That was the
second day after we was bloekaded.
There wasn't no doctor on board, and
her husband he was mighty scared.
He came through to the front car to
find the conductor, looking as pale's a
ghost. MY wife's a dying,' said he.
Amt there no medical man on the
tramp And when we said no, he Just
gave a groan. Then she must die he
said. Great heayensl why did 1 bring
her on this fatal journeyP'
perhaps the young ladyH have some
remedies" suggested n of the por-
tiers, for we'd all got into the way al
ready of turning to the young lady
whenever things were wrong.
"Well, l went for her, and you never
seen anyone so level-headed as she
seemed to be. She knew Just what to
do; and she had the right medicine IN
her bag; and in less than an hour the
poor lady was quite comfortable, and
her husband the most relieved man that
ever was. Then the young lady came
along to where l was standing--there
wasn't nothing for me to do, but [ was
waiting, for l didn't know but there
might be-and said she: Mr. Scott, l
am growing anxious about the fuel.
Do you think there is plenty to lastp
Suppose we were to be kept here a
weekp'
Now just think OF it'll not one of us
dumb fools had thought of that. You
see we were expecting to be relieved
from hour to hour, for we had tele-
graphed both ways, and the snow had
stopped by that time, and none of us
had any notion it was going to be the
Job 1t was to dig us out. Only the
young lady had the sense to remember
that it might take longer than we was
calculating on.
0oyo - - "O hCBt ACAO q
week, there won't be a shovelful 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 a
wise plan to get all the passengers to-
getaer In one car, and keep a good fire
up there, and let the other stoves go
out. It's no matter if we are a little
crowded. says she.
well, of course, it was the only
thing to do, as we seen at once when it
was put into our heads. We took the
car the sick lady was in, SOS 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 matter so
much, because the weather was so
awfully cold.
THAT was the way l came to see SO
much of the young lady, hadn't any,