The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-04-17

happened lndJ Oh luis Idrm JDere was
dark.eyed little girl who was the
idol of all the boys along the road. She
wouldn't flirt with us, but she used
often to come down to the water tank
and get little packages which the engi-
neer, who was friend of the family,
used to bring down from Albany She
had dark eyebrows and long lashes, and
under them the prettiest pair of eyes
ever saw. There wasn't one of us who
wouldn't have married her quick if
she'd had us. But she was sort o. re-
served and shy and none of us had
nerve enough to make love to her. All
except Johnny. All the girls smiled
on Johnny and he smiled on them.
He didn't have to see the lass twice
before he was head over heels in love
with her, and it wasn't very long be-
fore he made her know all about it. To
WOO was to win with Johnny, and reg
ular as his train passed the farm Jenny
that was the little DANES name
was always there to meet him. We
used to chaff Johnny good deal over
the matter, but we couldn't get much
out of him. Somehow, through the en-
gineer or somebody, though, we found
out that Johnny was going to marry
the girl if he could get his father to
consent. He couldn't very well marry
on the salary he was getting as raw
brakeman.
Things ran along through the sum
mer and into fall, and we noticed that
Johnny bad got very quiet and re-
served like, and was evidently brooding
over something. AT last we found out
that Johnny had been promised a raise,
and that along about the holidays he
was to be made passenger brakeman,
and then he was going to get married.
There wasn't one of us that wasn't
glad of it, or who envied him his good
luck The fall stretched into the win
ter, / remember, and my, wasn't it
beautiful weather! You'd stand up on
top of car, as the train wound along
the shore mile after mile, just drinking
in the air and view. Braking is a hard
life, with lots of danger and pretty slim
pay. But those days we'd forget all
about the hardships and everything
else. Johnny was on the same train
with me and happy as lark, thinking
how be would marry and go up to Al
bany to live. used to notice, though,
that every once in while his brow
would cloud up, as if he was thinking
of something that hurt him.
Such weather couldn't last, though,
end when the end came, it came with
a squall. The thermometer dropped
forty degrees, and cold driving rain
that had set in in the afternoon turned
toward night into a drifting, binding
snow. We had big train that night,
xIyti thp IL 4
the cold it gave us no end of trouble.
She parted three or four times going
not more than twenty miles, and it was
cold and dangerous work slipping along
the top setting brakes or getting down
to make couplings. The wind howled
and whistled and the snow cut your
face like going through a hedge. 1t
was dark and the lanterns didn't show
plain through the snow, and everything
seemed to 60 wrong. Several times
we thought we were stalled in the
drifts, but we'd uncouple and send the
engine and two or three cars through
the drift, and then back up and take
the rest of the train through. We
wanted to get through to Albany, for
the next day was lay off.
"Johnny and l fought like beavers
against the cold, and, tell you, it was
ticklish work. l felt more anxious
about Johnny than 1 did about myself,
for l was old at the business and he
was new, and know how easy it was
for sudden jerk to send man flying
down between the wheels. But Johnny
wouldn't listen. He said he wasn't
afraid, and just then the whistle sounded
down brakes We were sitting in
the caboose, shivering around dirty
little fire. l had frozen three of my
fingers, and l thought my ears were
frosted, too. You see the storm came
so sudden we didn't have time to get
on any mufflers, and the mittens were
pretty thin.
L" Well, we climbed out, and Johnny
ran on ahead, saying that he was I'll
right and he'd take the front. The
cars on top were as slippery as glass,
and we had almost to creep along from
one car to another to keep from falling
off, for she was running at a good pace,
and the snow on the tracks made the
cars lurch and swing. l looked up,
and through the snow and the dark
recognized the landmark and knew we
were nearing the water tank, where
Johnny's girl lived. Just at that mo.
ment the train gave frightful jerk
and / saw the engine GO rearing in air,
and about hundred feet ahead l saw
lantern swing wildly in the air and 60
down. 1 went fiat on the car and hung
there for dear life. We stopped in ten
or twenty yards and / swung off the
car like mad. Great God | thought,
if that was Johnny y
Something made me feel that he
had gone under the wheels, and when
l crawled ahead a few cars there |
found him, lying all white and still.
He was too much stunned to say a
word, We picked him up and started
10 carry him to the house where Jenny
lived. / saw that the wheels had gone
over both legs--over one near the thigh
and the other below the knee. My,
but he was game lad, for all the tor
ture OF carrying him up the hill couldn't
wiring word from him. We knocked
at the door and said one of the boys had
got hurt-that the engine had Jumped