Connecticut western news., 1891-12-24


 ployed watching it's buffers with it's head light to see whether it's 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."
 Do they swear, papa?" asked the little girl, somewhat shocked and yet pleased.
 "Well, l never heard them near by. But it sounds a good deal like swearing when you hear them on the up grade on our hill in the night. Where was I2' .te.,
 Swearing" said the boy. And please don't go back now, papa"
 "Well, 1 won't. It'll be as much as can do to get through this story without going over any of it again. We'll, the thing that the little Pony Engine wanted to be the most in this world was the loco motive of the Pacific Express, that starts out every afternoon at 3, you know. It in sended to apply for the place as soon as the cowcatcher was grown, and it was always trying to attract the locomotives atten- tion. backing and filling on the track alongside of the train, and once it raced it a little piece and beat it, before the Express locomotive was under way, and almost got in front of it on switch. My, but it's mother was scaredl She just yelled to it with her whistle, and that night she sent it to sleep without q particle of coal or Wa ter in it's tender. =-E -|" --...
 "But the little Pony Engine didn't care It had beaten the Pacific Express in 100 yards. and what was to hinder it from beating it as long as it chose? Tine little Pony Engine could not get it out of it's head It was just like a boy who thinks he can whip a man." 4" ''1 r
 The boy lifted his head "Well, boy can, papa, if he goes to do it the right way. Just stoop down before the man knows it and catch him by the legs and tip him right over." ,,E
 "Hol guess you see yourself" said the little girl scornfully.
 "Well, 1 could," said the boy; "and some day I'll just show yon."
 "Now, little cock sparrow, nowp' said the papa, and he laughed "Well, the lit tie Pony Engine thought he could beat the Pacific Express, any way, and so one dark, snowy, blowy afternoon, when his mother was off pushing some empty coal cars up past the knOwnothinY crossing beyond Chariestown, he got on the track ill front of the Express, and when he heard the con- ductor say, All aboardP and the starJiny gong struck, and the brakeman leaned out and waved to the engineer, he darted off like lightning. He had his steam up and be just scuttled. -. -. '".@
 Well, he was so excited for awhile that he couldn't tell whether the Express was gaining on him or not, but after twenty or thirty miles he thought he heard it pretty near. Of course the Express locomotive was drawing heavy train of cars and it had to make stop or two-at Charles town, and at Concord Junction, and at Ayer-so the Pony Engine did really gain on it q little. and when it began to be scar ed it gained a good deal. But the first place where it began tu feel sorry and to want it's mother was in Hoosac tunnel. It never was in a tunnel before, and it seemed as if it would never get out. It kept think ing what if the Pacific Express was to run over it there in the dark. and it's mother off there in the Fitchburg depot in Boston, looking for it among the side tracks? It gave q perfept shriek, and just then it shot out of the tunnel. There were lot of locomotives loafing around there at North Adams, and one of them shouted out to it as it flew by, Whats your hurry, little ones and it just screamed back. Pacific Express and never stopped to explain. They talked in locomotive language"- "Oh, what did it sound like?" the boy asked
 Well, pretty queer. I'll tell you some day. It knew it had no time to fool away, and all through the long, dark night when ever a locomotive hailed it it just screamed Pacific Express and kept, on. And the Express kept gaining on it. Some of the locomotives wanted to stop it, but they decided they had better not get in it's way, and so it whiZzed along across New York state and Ohio and Indiana till it got to Chicago. And the Express kept gaining on 1 it. By that time it was so hoarse it could hardly whisper, but it kept saying Pacific Express! Pacific EXpressp and it kept right nn hnI ho y,vi vi. There it found long train of freight cars before it on the bridge. It couldn't wait, | and so it slipped down from the track to the edge of the river and jumped across, and | then scrambled up the embankment to the l track again."
 l "Papal'' said the little girl warningly. "Truly it did" said the papa. l "Hol that's nothing," said the boy. "A 1 whole train of cars did it in that Jules l Verne book"
 Well" the papa went on, "after that it l had q little rest, for the Express had to wait I for the freight train to get off the bridge, 1 and the Pony Engine stopped at the first l station for a drink of water and a mouth 1 full of coal, and then it flew ahead. There was kind old locomotive at Omaha that tried to find out where it belonged, and l what it's mothers name was, but the Pony l Engine was so be wildered that it couldn't l tell. And the Express kept gaining on it. 1 On the plains it was chased by pack of l prairie wolves, but it left them far behind and the antelopes were scared half to 1 death. But the worst of it was when the nightmare got after it."
 | "The nightmarei Goodnessp' said the hoy.
 'Tve had the nightmare" said the girl. 1 "Oh, yes, 8 mere human niGhtmare,' said the papa. But a locomotive night
 mare IS a very different thing"
 "Why, what's it like2'' asked the boy l The little girl was almost afraid to ask.
 .nWell, it has only ons leg, to begin with. .
 ePshaw!'
 1 "Wheel, 1 mean. And it has four COW
 catchers and four headlights and two boil CTS and eight whistles, and it just goes
 whirling and screechng along Of course
 it wabbles awfully, and as it's only got oue
 wheel it hes to keep skipping from one | track to the other"
 "Ishould think it would run on the eros.
 ties," said the boy.
 "Oh. very we'll. then" said the papa. "it you know SO much more about it than do. Who's telling this story, anywayi
 Now I shall have to go back to the begin
 ming. Once there was a little Pony En'-
 They both put their hands over his
 mouth ana Ialrly DeSReu ulH to go on, Ill.
 at last he did. "Well, it got away from
 the nightmare about morning, but not til
 the nightmare had bitten large piece ou
 of it's tender, and then it braced up for th'
 homestretch. It thought that if it coul'
 once beat the Express to the Sierras i
 could keep the start the rest of the way
 for it could get over the mountains quick
 er than the Express could, and it might b.
 in San Francisco before the Express got tt
 Sacramento. The Express kept gaining ol
 it. But just zipped along the upper edge o
 Kansas and the lower edge of Nebraska ant
 on through Colorado and Utah and Nevada
 and when it got to the Sierras it jus