News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-08-02
THEIR PRIVATE LINE.

John English was ticket agent, bag
gagemaster and telegraph operator
at the little station called Ranch
mans Centre. 1t was a new station,
far out on the prairie, fully half a
mile from the nearest human habita-
ton, but being situated in the midst
of a wide belt of excellent grazing
country, is was regarded as a good
shipping point. 1t already did more
business in that line than many plac-
es on the road boasting of several
hundred inhabitants. There were two
freight trains a day each way, the
through and the local, the latter OF
which carried passengers, having a
coach attached to the rear for that
purpose. Then there were the two
accommodation going in opposite
directions and the daily express and
mail east and west, which passed
through the lonely place between the
hours of 10 and II at night.
Hence Jack had all the after part
of the night at his own disposal, and
as soon as the last train-the east
bound express-passed he locked up
the station and crossed the prairie
to the little cottage half a mile away,
where his mother and sister Lizzie,
kept pleasant home for him. They
had their COW, their garden and their
'truck patch" to look after, and the
products of these, in addition to the
twelve dollars a month pension which
the mother, a soldiers widow, re-
ceived, enabled them to live quite
comfortably.
Lizzie was a bright, active girl of
fourteen, always busy with her work
or book, but with all her intelligence
and industry she was an inveterate
coward. She was afraid of everything
and often made herself miserable by
imagining danger when none existed.
But she was ambitious, nevertheless,
and wanted to learn everything Jack
undertook.
Hence, when he took charge of the
little office down at the crossing she
announced her determination oflearn-
ing telegraphy. Jack assured her
that the art was as full of electricity
as a thunderstorm, of which she
stood in mortal dread, but she per-
severed in her effort notwithstanding,
and in a few weeks could manipulate
the instrument so as to receive and
send messages as correctly if not
quite as speedily as her teacher.
Pleased with her progress, her broth
er secured two secondhand instru-
ments and a coil of wire and put up
a line from the house to the station,
so that she might have practice with
out having to walk to the office dur
ing the cold weather.
Under Jacks directions the cow
boys put it up, and though it was
not stretched so we'll as might have
been, and the poles were only fence
posts splced together, it worked as
perfectly as the main line. Fearing
that the officious linemen might OBJ
iect to the instrument on his end OF
the line being in the office, Jack set
it up on one side of the big, empty
freight room, and here, when the
weather was not too cold, he spent
many a lonely half-hour in convers-
ing in telegraphic language with the
little sister at home.
One night, about the middle OF
February, there was terrific thun-
der and wind storm, with a binding
fall of rain and hail, a very unusual
thing at that season of the year. 1t
came up suddenly about IL o'clock,
after the westbound train had passed,
and an hour before the eastern one
was due. Jack had been lying, doz-
ing on the cot in his office, but at the
sound of the thunder he got up to
look out.
The rain was beginning to fall then
and the wind shook the light frame
building in such fierce way as to
cause him to SILVER. While he stood
by the window watching the threat
ening clouds, a vivid flash of light
ming revealed for an instant troop
of horsemeng alloping across the prai,
RE in the direction of the station.
Thinking they were belated cow
DOyS CduS III III Ollo uucA pcCCcu SUBTLE
he paid no further attention to them
but after another look at the ap.
preaching cloud went back to the
stove, where bright fire was burn
ing, and as it was still an hour till
train time, he took up book, turned
the night lamp higher and lazily
stretched himself on the cot to read.
He had read only few pages when
above the roar of the thunder and
the beating of the rain against the
window he heard the chatter of horses
leet. A moment later heavy foot
steps on the platform outside reach
ed his ear, and before he had time to
conjecture what the unusual disturb
ance at that hour of the night meant,
there came a loud knocking at the
outer door.
Thinking they were people from a
distance to wait for the train, he in
uuired, more from habit than sus-
picion "Who is there ?"
Passengers to take the midnight
6rain," was the quick response. We're
not RI tho Skiu and half-frOzpn of