The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-03-16

IN ~
seen the worst the weather could do.
So I went down the hill, and before
was ten rods from the house the snow
had wiped it out, and all I could see
were the whirling drifts and the path
for a dozen feet ahead of me. And
when l reached the cut there wasn't
any cut there. It was filed to the
top with snow. / wondered what the
limited bound down for Cragie would
do. 1t was pretty sharp and cold when
l reached the track this side of the
bridge, and 1 had to get down on my
hands and knees and crawl along from
tie to tie just like a baby. 1 was strong
in those days, too, only the wind and
the snow were SO terrible that I couldn't
stand up. And the first thing I knew
l had crossed the bare knoll at the
bridge approach, and there / was hang
ing over the edge of the e%nbankment
like a bat to a rafter. Slipped before I
knew it.
You're done for, Dolby,' I said to
myself when I saw how little held me
from falling into the chasm. It was
100 feet to the bottom, and Jagged
rocks all the way down. But l had
grit, if I do say il, and 1 hung there
for grim death, with the wind kicking
and beating me about like a dead limb.
/ krew we'll enough there would be no
one to help me, and that l couldn't
help myself; but still ] lung there. A
man doesn't like to be shed to pieces
on a ledge Of rocks unless it becomes
absolutely necessary.
Pretty eoon I heard the limited
equealing down the cut. knew that
Jim Crosby, the engineer, was foun-
dering in the snow. I said to myself
that if jim succeeded in roofing
through with his engine I might be
saved, but I knew we'll enough he
wouldn't succeed. 1t would take four
engines and two rotary plows to drive
a tunnel during such q blizzard. And
there she squealed and shrieked for
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and arms grew as numb asclubs.
"And L9ttie-What was she doing all
this time9 When the snow covered
the woodshed and began to creep up
on the windows she was frightened.
I'm afraid that fatherTI never come
back" she told her mother-I heard
all about it afterwards-and her mother
who's always been fdgety and ner-
vous-like, began to walk up and down
and wiring her hands, not knowing
what to do. Twelve o'clock came, and
then one. Lettie started up and said:
Mother, I'm going out to see if I can't
find father and in spite of all her
mother could do, she bundled into her
cloak and hood end opened thedoor.
THE snow was up to her waist, but
the wind had most gone down. In the
cut Jimmie Crosby's engine was calling
and screaming for mercy, and Lettie,
when she looked over the cliff she
couldn't see the train at ell-ouIy q
big black hole where the smoke from
the stack had melted the snow. But
Lettie wasn't strong eAough to get
down to the track, for the path was
drifted full, and a slim girl like her
couldn't venture it without losing her
life. She knew we'll enough that I was
down the section someWhere-perhaps
out on the bridge. But she didn't give
up-not Lettie. There wasn't a man
around the place to ~help-only in the
train, and the train was at the bottom
of the cut buried in the snow. She
thought if only she could get word TO
Jim Crosby he'd help her, for she knew
him well. So she ran and got a coil
of rope and tied one end of it to that
stubby oak-there you can see it at the
edge of hill-and then she took hold OF
it and slid into the cut. That took
grit-there aren't many men who
would have risked it-let alone girls.
OF course the snow got into her eyes
and nose, and the rocky lodges cut and
bruised her, but she never stopped
until she was at the bottom, Jimmy
Crosby said he saw something founder
ing In the snow outside of the cab, and
then somebody called:
"'Jim, oh Jim.'
ut was Lettie. They dragged her
into the cab, and as o as she could
talk she told Jim that l was lost in the
blizzard.
"'WeH save him, said Jim, and the
fireman agreed to help, and so did a
dozen other men who had come down
from the train. And Jim, being a good
climber, went up the rope hand over