Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-08-16
THE WRONG STATION.
a SchoCl-Ma'am's Blunder and It's
Happy Results.

The afternoon train that connected some
lonely, obscure towns in Maine with the
rest OF the world, was over two hours late
The premature darkness of stormy Win
ter's night had set in comparatively early
in the afternoon, and, though it was barely
seven O'Clock, it seemed to the few weary
passengers as though they had been travel
ing half the night
There were two representatives of the
gentler sex present. but one, 1 am almost
tempted to say land think the conductor
and brakeman would bear me out in my dis
tinction) for while one, shy, timid girl of
nineteen or twenty, had quietly gone to
sleep the other, lady of great asperity of
voice and demeanor, would neither go to
sleep herself nor render this comforting
performance possible to any one in her i'm
mediate vicinity, but persisted in admins
tering large pieces of her mind to the afore-
said conductor and brakeman concerning
the delay of the train, and their shameful
completely with the storm that caused the
delay.
When at last the brakeman threw open
the door, in slow, despairing way that
showed great depression of spirit and
called out something that began with Hunt
er's and ended in mournful inarticulate
howl, he frightened visibly at seeing the
severe lady start up with jerk and gather
up collection of heterogeneous parcels
with an air of relief which, oddly enough,
Immediately communicated itself to the
rest of the passengers.
He helped her of the train with q cheerful
alacrity that was not apparently abashed
by the icy contempt she Enthusiastically enter
tanned for the railroad and every one con-
nected with it from the president to the
water boy.
The conductor promptly swung his lantern
to signal the engineer, called out briskly,
''all aboard" and sprang on to the moving
train without stopping to notice tn at his ex-
passenger was in a state of violent dissatis-
faction over the trunk.
May Smith, the girl who had been asleep
started up with bewildered air as the train
left the station, thrust her hand into her
pocket to see if her purse was still there
and pressing her face close to the window
pane, against which the whirling snow
dashed and clunz, tried to make out some
thing of the landscape.
1t was of no use; the window refused to
do any thing more than to give back an i'm
age OF a homesick girl with a tired, white
scared face and also that of her near neigh
Dor, q gentleman of such on exaggerated
bucolic appearance that he seemed the carl
cature of himself.
She was afraid that she had been carried
past her station, and made little timid,
irresolute movement toward addressing the
formerly detected brakeman, who now
passed through the car. actually whistling
the frollicking air of "Begone, Dull Care"
He passed by without noticing her slight
movement and sudden recollection kept
her from repeating il.
The aunt with whom she had lived ever
since she could remember, had always emp
tied her largest walls of concentrated wrath
on the heads of those girls who tried to Sat
tract attention"
Fearing lest by an unnecessary question
she herself might be classed with these rep
renensible delinquents, she made no second
attempt but leaned back in her seat an un-
resisting prey to loneliness and foreboding.
She had never before been out of the
quiet little town of Massachusetts,, where
she had lived with her aunt until the death
Of the latter forced her 70 find some means
Of earning her own living
Having had some correspondence with
the hiring committee of a district school
in small village in Maine she was now on
her way to have her fate decided by the ex-
amining committee.
As her mind was firmly made up before
leaving home that she could never return if
she We're disgraced by not passing her ex-
summation, and as her stock of money was
not sufficient to hold out against any extend
ed siege of expenses while she was waiting
achievements in the shape of employment,
her depression was not wholly unfounded
The train soon came to another halt, the
brakeman again roared out something that
began with Hunters and ended in some IN
Ineligible syllable. Nays face lighted up
when she heard the name, and, starting up,
she grasped her shabby, old-fashioned
carpet bag with one hand, felt nervously in
her pocket with the other, to make sure that
her purse had not been distracted within
the last two minutes by any of the listless
passengers, and hurried to the door.
The train had stopped at little flag
station, whose only accommodation for pas
sengers was a small platform, at present
covered with snow
As May hesitated an instant on the car
steps, tail figure seized her, and carrying
her across the platform deposited her in the
sleigh, and the train moved on before she
could recover from her surprise enough 70
ask tin.e;v: where's my trunk!''