The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1886-10-21

OA Dlte 'iIttdE JCuA14cy! = 81
~"Per1laps the young lady'l have
some yemedies, Suggested one OF the
porters; for weld all got into the way
already of tuning to the young lady
whenever,thingsrwere wrong. ~
"WeH, Invent for her, and you eve
see any one ,sci aevel-headed as she
seemed TO be. she knew just what
to do; and she had the right medi-
| cine in her bag; land in less than an
hour that poor lady was quite COM
Portable, and.h her husband the most
| relieved ,g,an that I ever saw. Then
the young lady came along to where
! was stas,ding-there wasn't nothing
for me tesdo, but.I a. waiting, for
I didn't know but there might be-
and said she: Scott, I am grow
ing anxious about 4the fuel. Do you
think there is plentytto last? Suppose
we were to he kept here q week."
"Now gust think OF it, not one of us
dumb fools mad Thought of that. You
see We was expecting to be relieved
from hour to hour, Gor we had tele-
graphed both ways,:and the snow had
stopped by that time, and none of us
had any n0tioniit Was going to be the
Job it vas to dig us .eut. Only the
young lady had the sense to remember
that it might take Longer than we were
calculating On.
"Says I, If we stay hene a week, there
won't be a shovelful tef Goals left
for any of the fires, let :alone the EN-
gine.'
"'Then don't you know says she,
in her soft voice that 1T would be a
wise plan to get all the passengers to-
gether in n car and Keep a good fire
up there, and let the other stoves 60
vut? It's no matter if We are a little
crowded. says she.
''Well, of course, it WAS the only
thing to do, as we see at once when it
was put into our heads. We took the
car the sick lady was in, SOS she'dnot
have to be disturbed, and we made up
beds for the children and somehow all
che passengers managed to pack in,
train hands and all. It was a tight
squeeze, but that didn't matter 50
much, because the weather was so
awfully cold.
"That was the way I come to see
SO much OF the young lady. I hadn't
anything to keep me about the en-
CINE, SO l kind of detailed myself of
to wait on her. She al busy all day
long doing things for the rest. It's
queer how peoples characters come
out at such times. We got to know
all about each other. People stopped
string and manning and being polite
and just showed what they were worth.
The selfish ones, and the shirks, and
the towards, and the mean who
wanted to blame some M besides the
Almighty for sending the weather.
there warn't no use for any of them
to try to hide themselves any
than it was for the other kind. The
women, as a rule, bore up better than
the men. 1t comes natural, Isuppose,
for a woman to be kind of silent and
pale and patient when she's suffering.
But the young lady wasn't that sort,
either. She was as bright as a button
all along. You'd suppose from herface
that she was having just the best kind
of a time! .r. T..
Il a see her now, standing before
the stove roasting ~jack-rabbits, for
the others supper. Some of the gen.
tlemen had revolvers, and when the
snow got crusted over SOS they could
walk ON it, they used to shoot 'em.
And we were glad enough of every one
shot, provisions were so scanty.
The last two days them rabbits and
snow water melted in a pail over the
stove was all we had to eat or drink"
~ suppose there was nothing for
you to do but to watt" said Miss
Vaughn.
mo, ma'am; there wasn't nothing
at all for me to do but help the young
lady now and then. She let me help
her more than the rest, I used to
think. She'd come to me and say,
Mr.. Scott, this rabbit is you and the
conductor She never forgot anybody
except herself. Once she asked me
to hold hesick little girl while shetook
a sleep. 1t was mighty pretty always
to see her with them children. They
never seemed to have enough of her.
All of them wanted her to put them
to bed, and sing to them and tell sto.
ries. Sometimes she'd have all FIVE
swarming v her at nee. / used to
watch them, =, -.
"Well, how did it end?" asked Miss
Vaughn, as the engineers voice, which
had gradually grown lower and more
dreamy, came to a stop.
"Eh? what? Oh!"-rousing himself.
at ended when three locomotives and
a relief train from Cheyenne broke
through to us on the eighth morning
after we were blocaded. They brought
provisions and coal; and we got on
first rate after that. Did the sick
lady die? No, ma'am. She was living
when l last heard of her, down to
Santa Barbara. Two years ago, that
was"
"And what became Of your young
"she left at Sacramento. Her
brother or some one was down to
meet her. Isaw him a, moment. He
didn't look like her.. i
"AAd you never saw her again?
You never heard her manner"
"No, ma'am; l never did" T.
The engineers voice sounded gruf
and husky as hi said this. Heshovel-
ed in Goals with needless energy.
care you q married man?" asked
Miss Vaughn. The question sounded
abrupt even to herself, but seemed
relevant to something in her mind.