Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-11-18

with the tint of spring, waved breast
high. There was no sound except the
monotonous beat of the wheels, as
they passed from one rail to the next,
and the steady swish of the grass, as
it bent before the rushing wind of the
train.
Twas sitting on the platform of the
observation car, with half dozen
other passengers. The conversation
fell upon prairie fires, and each man
had his say.
1T was along in 1874, when this
road was a-building, and was one of
the engineers assistants" " spoke up a
grizzled, hard-featured man who had
taken but little part in the conversa-
ton. 1--WE began at the western end,
down by Bucephalus, and we had laid
out about forty miles of track in a
straight line right across the prairie,
and had got to within, say, ten miles
from where we are at this identical
minute. 1t was an easy job, for we
just laid the sleepers down on the
ground and spiked the rails to them,
calculating to ballast the track when
we got good and ready. [ had a big
gang of Irishmen under me, and we
used to average a mile day of track
laying. One July I'VE had strike
among the laborers, and all hands
quit work. 1 was down at Bucephalus
at the time, and the chief engi-
neer asked me to take locomo-
tive over the line and see if the strikers
had done any damage before they
left us.
81 started out in the morning with
nobody except the engineer in charge
of the locomotive, l agreeing to take
turns with him in shoveling coal and
watching the engine. We came
along slow and easy, for the track was
too rough for any fast running, and
about noon we got to where it ended
There were no signs that the strikers
had meddled with the track, and as it
was q pretty hot day, Sam and I, after
we had had our lunch, lay down
alongside of the engine in the shade
OF the cab and took nap.
81 woke up little before o'clock.
and as 1 was filling pipe and making
up my mind to wake Sam and to start
for home big wolf bolted out from
the high grass and ran across the track
not two yards from us. His tail was
between his legs and the foam was
dripping from his mouth, and he was
making about as good time as any wolf
ever made before or since. He never
so much as looked at me, and when he
he'd vanished 1 called Sam and told
him [ had seen mad wolf. While |
was speaking about dozen prairie
dogs rushed past us, and then there
came another wolf and couple of
hares. All of them were doing their
level best, and they paid no more at
couple of corpses.
"'What on earth is the meaning of
this circus?' says L. Are those ami
mails just racing for the championship,
or is there somebody after them?'
''Sam didn't answer but I saw that
he looked scared. He sprang up, and
climbing on his engine looked over the
prairie to the eastward Then he sang
out to me to get into the cab quicker
than lightning, and started to open the
draught and set the fires blazing.
"'What is it?' l began to ask, as
climbed into the cab. But L didn't
need to finish my question. I could
see for myself what was the matter.
The whole prairie east of us, as far as
| could see, was in blaze, and as
there had been a strong east wind all
day, and the fire wasn't more than
three or four miles away, I calculated
it would be down on us in a very few
minutes.
Hadn't we better start fire and
burn some of this grass off before the
fire gets here?' L asked Sam. You see,
L had read about that way of stopping
a prairie fire, and knowing that Sam
had been born and bred on the prairie,
calculated he would know all
about it.
"'No,' says Sam. Cant you see
that the wind has all gone down here,
though it's blowing a gale where the
fire is? Hold on, now, for I'm going
to open her out, and we're going to do
some tall running
with that he pulledopen the throt-
tie, and the engine started with big
jump, as if she had just seen the fire
and was badly scared. We went down
the track for about mile at a pretty
good gait, and then we had to stop
while Sam tightened nut in the con-
Meeting rod.