The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-11-11


| man, rising and placing chairs for Miss
Alden and myself, was about to tell
of the Phantom Train which is popu-
| larly supposed to appear every 20th
Of September"
LET us not interrupt his recital"
said Mr.. Ackley as We all exchanged
glances.
"You see,'' said the old man, IT was
hostler down to Cohos, and I was a
tendin' to my duties, when into the
stable comes young man, genteel but
sorter dissipated lookin', and with
somethin' in his eye that I didn't like
the looks of.
"'They tell me at the house that I
can't get to Dixville tonight, but I'll go
if the devil will help me, and I believe
he WILL
They say he helps his own says
I, perlitely, but he didn't seem to mind
what said.
"'You see,' says he, there's young
lady with me, an her mother is very
| sick; If we can get through the Notch
tonight maybe she will see her mother
before she dies. We've got to go an we
will 60
but there amt no train and there
Amt no team that goes this time er
night says I, and I turned round to
card one err. the bosses and when look
ed round he want there I was sur
prised, because you see, the stable doors
opened and shut terrible hard and
sQueaked on their hinges.
well, he was gone. Vanished like.
1 went up to the house an the cook an
the chamber maid was a talkin' about
a lady in the parlor.
She's handsome as a drawn pic
ture,' says Mary, and her Teller is
handsome, too. They're runaway
couple, I b'leve.'
Handsome! said the cook, He's
too wicked lookin' to be handsome!
wish I could see her. says I; for
you see pitied the girl if she was 60
Ing to run off with that man.
Well, come with me- says Mary.
I guess you can get look at her, for
l am jest goin' to ask if she wants
anything.'
Il followed Mary as fur as the par
lor door, but in minute she comes out
lookin' scared. She amt there says
she.
wall, ladies and gentlemen, no one
ever set eyes on them after that, but
strange sights and strange sounds was
heard that night by more'n one. Miss
Higgins, the milliner, was walked by
noise like train passin' her win
der, and Dick Henderson was run over
by train and had his leg broke. There
want no track, mind you, where they
found him, and good many folks said
Dick was too drunk to know what hurt
him.
But old Mr.. Fellows is the soberest
man you ever saw, and he heard train
tootin' and bellerin' that night, like
all possessed. 1 heered him tell ont
down to the store. He thought the day
OF judgment had come. And the Wild
der Storm, a mother in Israel, if there
ever was one, says she was a comm
from a sick neighbours and saw right
before her an ingine, but she didn't see
no one else till the car passed her, and
then, sittin' by the winder that was
all lit up, she saw a beautiful young
lady and she was cryin'.
'She felt so sorry for her, the Wild
der Storm did, that she says she never
thought of there bein' no track for the
car till she got home and then she said
she shook like leaf, and she remem-
bered that the smoke had a dreadful
curious smell.
Just a year from that night hap
pened to be camped out in Dixville
woods, and long towards midnight, !
saw passin' high up on the peakid
rocks a train tearin' along at a ter
rible rate. 1t was all lit up, but there
want only the ingine and one car.
Twas too fur off to see inter the win
dows, but knew it was the same train,
That Teller was a tendin' of the ingine
and the pretty girl was cryin' inside.
l was sure ont, fur when man calls
on the devil as he did, he's sure to git
help, and he's pretty sure to git more'n
he wants ont ~ +.
wall, the next year me and Jim
Gallagher thought we'd git higher. if we
could, an so we set out to climb the
rocks, long in the afternoon, but sure's
your born, we never got no higher,
though We CHM an CHM. When night
came, we was in a different place. but
no higher. BY an by the train came
tearin' along. 1t looked wickeder this
time. The ingine seemed possessed, an
belched an blowed an quivered, and
throwd fire, and this time I could just
make out the f1gger of man walkin'
on the car. I looked round at Jim an
he laid on the ground rollin' an twist
in as though he was in fit. I shook
him pretty rough an he set up and
gasped. 49,.
''"Wall, XII says he, I never believ-
ed nothin' before that you ever see it,
but that's phantom train, sure 'nough,
Where's it goin' tor
"Sure's the world, never thought of
that, but Jim's a readin' Teller. YOU
see. At the rate that train travelled It
could go round the world pretty quick.
or down to Chiny, and round t,other
way, for it don't need no rails. YOU see.
But who was the Teller an who was the
OF ri NJ