The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-12-18

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How to bear n how to bow.
Oh, the Christmas that is fedl
Lord Of living and of dead,
Comfort thou!
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps in Independent.
WATCHING FOR ST. NICK.
Christmas eve, after the children had
hung up their stockings and got all ready
for St. Nick, they climbed upon papa's lap
to kiss him good night, and when they
both got their arms around his neck they
said they were not going to bed till he told
them a Christmas story. Then he saw
that he would have to mind, for they wers
awfully severe with him, and always made
him do exactly what they told him; it was
the way they had brought him up. He
tried his best to get out Of it for awhile,
but after they had shaken him, first this
side and then that side, and pulled him
backward and forwardtill he did not know
where he was, he began to think perhaps
he had better begin.
The first thing he said after he opened
his eyes and made believe he had been
asleep or something was, "Well, what did
1 leave off at?" and that made them just
perfectly boiling, for they understood his
tricks and they knew he was trying to
pretend that he had told part of the story
already, and they said he had not left off
anywhere, because he had not commenced,
and he saw it was no use. So he COM
menced:
"Once there was a little Pony Engine
that used to play around the Fitchburg
depot, on the side tracks, and sleep in
among the big locomotives in the car
house,
The little girl lifted her head from her
papa's shoulder, where she had dropped it.
SIS it a sad story, papa?"
"How is it going to end?" asked the boy.
"Well, it's got a moral" said the papa.
"Oh, all right if it's got a moral" said
the children. They had a rood deal of fun
with the morals the papa put to his stories.
The boy added, go on" and the little girl
prompted, Gar house."
The pap said, CHOW every time you stop
me I shall have to begin over again." But
he soon saw that this was not going to
spite them any, SO he went on: zone of the
locomotives was its mother, and she had
got hurt once in a big smash up, so that
she couldn't run long trips any more. She
was SO weak in the chest you could hear
her wheeze as far as you could see her.
But she could work around the depot and
pull empty cars in and out and shunt
them of on the side tracks, and she was so
anxious to be useful that all the other en-
gines respected her, and they were very
kind to the little Pony Engine on her ac-
count, though it was always getting in the
way and under their wheels and every
thing. They all knew it was an orphan,
for before its mother got hurt its father
went through a bridge one lark night
into an arm of the sea and was never
heard of again. He twas supposed to have
been drowned.
"The old mother locomotive used to say
that it would never have happened if she
had been there; but poor, dear No. 236 was
always so venturesome, Inc she had
warned him against that very bridge time
and again. Then she would whistle so
dolefully, and sigh with her airbrakes
enough to make anybody cry. You see,
they used to be a very happy family when
they were all together, before the papa
locomotive got drowned. He was very
fond of the little Pony Engine, and told it
stories at night after they got into the car
house at the end of some. of his long runs.
1t would get up on his cowcatcher and lean
its chimney up against his and listen till it
fell asleep. Then he would put it softly
down and be off again in the morning be-
fore it was awake. I tell you, those were
happy days for poor No. 236. The little
Pony Engine could just remember him; il
was awfully proud Of it's papa"
The boy lifted his headand looked at tho
little girl, who suddenly hid her face in
the papa's other shoulder. "NVell, L de-
clare, papa, she was putting up her lip"
II wasn't any such thing!" said the little
girl. Sand I don't carel Sop and then
she sobbed.
"Now, never you mind,' said the papa
to the boy. You'll be putting up your
lip before Pm through. Well, and then
she used to caution the little Pony Engine
against getting in the way of the big loco
motives, and told it to keep close around
after her and try to do all it could to learn
about shifting empty cars. You see, she
knew how ambitious the little Pony Engine
was, and how it wasn't contenteda bit just
to grow up in the pony engine business
and be tied down to the depot all its days.
Once she happened to tell it that if it was
good and always did what it was bid per-
haps a cowcatcher would grow On it some
day, and then it could be q passenger loco
motive. Mammas have to promise all sorts
of things, and she was almost distracted
when she said that"
t.Idon't think she oughtto rave deceived
1t, papa" said the boy. "But it ought to
have known that if it was a Pony Engine
to begin with it never could have a cow
catcher"
Couldn't itin asked the girl gently.
"No; they're kind of mocley."
The little girl asked the papa, "What
makes Pony Engines mooley?n for she did
not choose to be told by her brother; he
was only two years older than she was
anyway.
well, it's pretty hard to say. You see,
when a locomotive is first hatched"-
"Oh, are they Matched, papa?" asked the
boy.
swell, we'll call it hatched,' said etho
papa; blu they knew he was just funning.
''They're about the size of teakettles at
first, and it's q chance whether they will
have cowcatchers or not. If they keep
their spouts they will, and if their spouts
drop off they won't"
What makes the spout ever drop off?n
"Oh, sometimes the pip, or the gapes''--
The children both began to shake the
papa, and he was glad enough to go on
sensibly.
"Well, anyway, the mother locomotive
certainly oughtn't to have deceived it.
Still she had to say something, and per-
haps, the little Pony Engine was better en-
ployed watching its buffers with its head
light to see whether its cowcatcher had
begun to grow than it would have been in
listening to the stories of the old locomo-
tives and sometimes to their swearing.n
DO they swear, papa?nn asked the littls
girl, somewhat shocked and yet pleased.
swell, I never heard them near by. But
yon hear them on the up grade on n hill