New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-09-29
either" Then won by Miss Vaughn's

either" Then won by Miss Vaughn's
appealing eyes, he continued:
eve ran all fair and on time till we
was about 200 miles beyond Omaha.
Then the snow began. It didn't seem
much at first. The women folks in
the train rather liked it. They all
crowded to the windows to see, and
the children hurrahed. Anything
seemed a pleasant change after
the sage-brush, l suppose. But
as it went on coming, and the
drifts grew deep, and the cars had to
run slow, the older ones began to look
serious, and l can tell you that we
who had charge Of the train felt so.
owe was just between two OF the
feeding stations, and put on all the
steam we could hoping TO push through
to where provlsins could be got at in
case we had to stop. But it wasn't
no use. The snow kept coming. |
never see it come so. The flakes look
ed 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 beer 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
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."
ooh. 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 just midway of the feeding
stations, and there wasn't a great
deal OF anything on board besides
what the passengers had in their
lunch baskets. One lady she had
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"
"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 a
dark flush into his bronzed face.
"What young lady was that?"
1t was moment or two before
John Scott answered the question.
II don't know what she was 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 folks had
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 come to be there"
"Were the children under her ccre?"
'No, 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- 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
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 round,
that sick young one and all the rest
would stop crying, and seem just as
clipper as if it was Summertime out
doors and the whole train full OF
candy.
II don't see how she did it, he went
on, meditatively, throwing shovelful
of coal in at the furnacedoor. "Some
women is made that way, I suppose.
AS soon as we see how things were 60
ing, and how bad they were likely to
be, that girl kind OF set herself to keep
along. She had mighty gentle way
with her, too. You'd never have
guessed that she was so plucky.
Plucky! By George, never saw any
thing like her pluck"
"Was she pretty?" asked Miss
Vaughn, urged by true feminine
curiosity.
swell, don't know ityou'd a called
her so or not. She was aslender- 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. I don't be-
lieve the worst man ever lived could
have told that girl lie if it had been
to save his life. Her hair was brown
She was different from girls in g neral,
somehow
II think we must say that she was
pretty" observed Miss Vaughn, with
smile
II 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 l never see any face quite
like hers. 1t was still like lake,
II