The state herald., 1897-11-12
before she dies. We've got to go an. =.

will co.
"'But there amt no train and there
amt no team that goes this time er
night says l. and turned round to
card one er the hosses and when look
prised. because you see, the stable doors
opened and shut terrible hard and
squeaked on their hinges.
well. he was gone. Vanished like.
went up to the house an the cook an
the chamber maid was talkin' about
a lady in the parlor.
"'She's handsome as drawn pic
ture,' says Mary. and her feller Is
handsome, too. They're a runaway
couple, b'leve.'
Handsome! said the cook. He's
too wicked lookin' to bc handsome!
"I wish could see her. says I; for
you see pitied the girl II 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
am Jest a goin' TO ask II she wants
anything
~ followed Mary as fur MS the par
lor door, but In minute she comes out
lookin' scared. 'Sho 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 bellerln' that night, like
all possessed. l 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. II there
ever was one, says she was comm
from sick neighbor's and saw righ;
before her an ingine. but she didn't see
no one else till the car passed her, and
then, sittin' by the winder shat was
all lit up. she saw a beautiful young
lady and she was a 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 a leaf. and she remem-
bered that the smoke had dreadful
curious smell.
Just a year from that night hap
pened to be camped out in Dixville
woods, and long towards midnight, I
saw passin' high up on the peakid
rocks a train tearin along at a ter
rible rate. 1t was all lii up. but there
want only the ingine and one car.
Twas too fur of to see inter the win
dows, but knew 1t was the same train.
That feller was tendin' Of the inglne.
and the pretty girl was cryin' inside
! was sure ont. fur when man calls
help. and he's pretty sure to git moren
he wants ont.
wall, the next year me and Jim
Gallgher thought we'd git higher, II 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 elm an elm. When nigh,
came, we was in different place. bu
no higher. By an by the train cam,
tearin' along. II looked wickeder thi
time. The ingine seemed possessed, an
belched an blowcd an quivcred. an,
throwd fire. and this time I could jus
make out the hggcr of a man waIkin
on the car I looked round mt Jim an
he laid on the ground roilin' an twise
In as though he was In flt. shoCsi
him pretty rough an he set up and
gasped.
""Wall. Ki.' says he, I never believ-
ed nothin' before that you ever sec H..
but that's n phantom train. sure 'nough.
Where's It goin' to7
''Sure's the world. ! never thought OF
that. but Jim's readln' fellcr. YOU
see. At the rate that train Travelled II
could go round the world pretty quick.
or down to Chiny. and round tother
way. for II don't need no rails. you see.
But who was the feller an who was the
girl, an was II n lie about her sick
mother I've lggered on II pretty
stiddy. but I don't git no higher the
truth.
"wall. two or three years after n
tall. melancholy man come to the Phe-
nix to inquire after his daughter. said
he'd tracked her so fur: said he sup
posed she'd gone on with stranger to
him. His daughter got acquainted with
him somewhere TO school. Course no
one could tell anything about her. and
there want no one could bear TO tell
him tho turriblc stories goin 'bou, the
phantom train. so he went back TO