Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-08-03

Suake-Ilke roots, tossed helpleSSlY IN
midstream.
Mammal See the big boards COM
ingl" cried out Ler little daughter.
Kate looked far up stream aud saw
q great timber sailing leisurely along.
Now it caught on a project ing snag
and swung half about, now it struck
on a submerged island, and idly dis
engaged itself and sauntered on. Be
hind il was another-the stream was
black with them.
cob, my GOO! The railroad bridget
The railroad bridge, and the after
noon train now nearly due, soon to
rush down steep grade to a leap in.
to that yawning chasm. Her flrst
impulse was TO start up the canon,
but she instantly checked herself.
What folly with miles of overflow
between and the doomed traiui Word
must be sent down to the station,
and from there telegram to the next
stopping place above the bridge
But how? The hired maGl jim had
gone an hour before to the village to
get the mail and have his daily gos-
sip with the loun8ers Of the place.
Even if he were here, neither ho.se
nor man was feet enough to cover
the crcUituous road that that lay be-
tween. Then she looked at the pros
trate sycamore. Down the stream,
leisurely, but nearer and nearer still
sailed the great timbers.
Marian; take little brother and GO
straight to The house and stay there
till mamma comes back"
She had already pulled herself up
by ore of the roots and was creeping
stealthiiy along the swaying trunk.
Here her dress caught on branch;
there she had to climb down and
crawl along with her feet under the
water to avoid an upright limb.
Once she slipped aud lost her hold,
and was nearly sucked into the eddy
ing current, but she caught at a pro-
lection aud swung herself up again.
She could hear the swash of the
heavy timbers upstream as they rock
ed lazily upon the water, but she did
not dare to look. Before her the main
trunk Of the tree was lost and she saw
two diverging limbs. one low in the
water, the other locked with the oak
in mid air Which to take? She
dared not hesitate, but began a
perilous climb along the upper limb,
slippery and naked in placs, waver-
ing SO that she grew dizzy and shut
her eyes to keep from falling. And,
so, lying prone upon it, she crept the
entire lenghth. and the great stick of
timber struck heavily against the fall.
en- sycamore, and just as Kate swung
herself into the branches of the oak
she felt her support give way, and
with groan and craoh, and wild up.
tossipgs of its skeleton arms, the old
tree tore loose from its moorings, and
was swept down stream toward the
bay.
Her han DIS torn and bleeding, Kate
Middleton reached solid ground at
length. and first her maternal instinct
asserted itself, and she looked back
and saw her children standing still
and looking offer her. She pointed
home with gesture that they dared
not disobey, and saw them turn and
run up the lane, then she sped on her
way.
She was not Ii ght of foot as in her
girlhood; whereas, she was once fleet
as deer and swift motion was a
very joy to her, she now realized
that she was growing to be stout
and middle-aged woman. She NOV
ed heavily and clumsily and labored
for breath, and her feet were like
clcds beneath her. There was mile
Of rough and rocky ground to be COW
cred before she reached the station,
and the train-oh, but to possess
once more the agility of her girlhoodl
Which would be first? Would the
train, flying across the upper levels
of the Coast Range, reach the next
station before the brave woman bad
sent her message of warning? How
many times she asked herself the
question she could not have told
She scarcely dared to hope that she
would be in time Her heart seemed
ready to burst with grief for the ter
rible misery threatening so many
happy homes. Alas! for the orphan.
ed children who might cry aloud to
heaven that night! Alas! for fathers
and mothers whom the morrow might
behold bowed down with sorrow
Alas! for husbands and wives
She was crossing the bed OF one oil
the many abandoned channels of the
impetuous mountain steeam, a rocky
pathway, strewn with the spoils Of
by-gone freshets, where, even then,
a shallow stream was ripping past
token of the torrents surplus force
She faltered, smitten by a new and
awful thought. What if Tom-Tom
who was not to come for two days
more; Tom, who had started out in
an altogether different direction
should have cut short his excursion,
or with his party, driven home by
the continued rains, somehow wan
dered to one of the upper stations
and boarded the train there!
Where now was her vaunted phys
ical strength now? What was she
after all, but weak, wretched WON
man with trembling limbs, every mus
Gle clogged by this great horror that
had taken possession of her, a fierce
pain gripping at her heart, something
rising in her throat which suffocateC
her, her eyes blinded with babyisf
tears? Thank Godl her brain KEEP
clear and true to its purpose and urg
ed on the tagging body. On, on
over little hillocks, across leve
stretches Of sand, down new ravinei
she ran. Once she cut her foot cruel
ly upon q sharp stone and remember
ed, for the first time, that she had or
the light, worsted slippers she haC
worn in the house, and had careless
ly neglected to exchange for walking
boots when she started down to th,
creek with her children. She ever
bethought herself that her loos
house dress was scarcely the style 0
apparel in which she should like t,
present herself at the station, coul,
she have her choice, and in the sam
breath sent up prayer of thankful