The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-24
"HEY, DAVISw

Dante when seeking local color. drove
the dry plugs tightly; they absorbed
moisture and swelled until they were
| the highest fiues in her. Twas good
/ job, and we'll done. The perspiration
CONCEALED on my face the instant /
stuck it out the fire box door, and be-
fore my feet were out, there were icicles
on my whiskers.
It was getting late in the afternoon,
and 1 was never so hungry in my life
before. Harry asked me if there was
ANY cold tapioco puddin' in the cup
board?" 1 told him there must be grub
in the cabooSe, or some of them would
have come ahead long ago to see if We
had any. He volunteered to go back.
1t was a risky job, climbing over the
tops of those cars in that weather If
anything happened he would be a
goner. with nobody near to help, and
a temperature that meant almost in
slant death to the partially disabled.
l sat and dozed, miserably. in the cor
ner of the cab AS 1 repeatedly lost
consciousness, my feet would slip off
the boiler butt. the heel of the left.
coming down with painful bang upon
the instep of the right. This occurred
at stated intervals. like pile driving
firing of the monotony, 1 sought to
change my position, and became aware
of an animated SNOWFALL. vainly striv
ing to enter the gangway. / pulled him
aboard, and when sufficiently thawed,
he reported the caboose deserted, and
not trace of anything edible in it,
He had seen nothing of train 10, and he
said that all the engines on the road,
coupled together. would not be able
to collide with our hind end.
This merry Christmas to which I had
so long looked forward. was about over
1t soon became dark. We shoveled coal
against the curtain to keep the cold
air out, caulked our window sash with
waste. / pumped her full again, and
we shivered and dozed and starved
through the longest night 1 ever knew
The temperance of the cab win
dawn. What a dismal sight Our usu-
ally neat cab was thickly begrimed
with coal dust. Every bolthead and bit
of iron in the cab itself, as well as the
windows, were disguised by the deli
cate tracery of that master silver
smith, Jack Frost. To the artistic sense
of the well-fed and comfortably clad,
it would have been beautiful; to my
dulled mind, 1t was emblematic only
of the biting cold that ragged without.
Harry, tied in hard knot, was snoring
soundly in his corner. / had him spread
the fire. and l pumped her full again.
We must have food at any cost
knew of but one house in that locality
an ordinary story and-a-half farm
house on cross road, about half a
mile from where we lay 1t was invisi-
bic through the storm, but We knew its
approximate direction. We left every
thing in the best order possible. and
started: the wind at our backs, Harry
in the lead.
shall never forget that trip. fioun-
dering aimleSSly through the drifts like
a pair of blind mice, if live to be 100
Three minutes after leaving the engine
we could not have found our way back
to 1t. no matter what the necessity
Harry, being younger and lighter than
l. had all / could do to keen him in
sight. We fell into an abandoned we'll
Fortunately, it was already nearly full
OF snow; Sd. barring a few bruises. we
received no injuries. We would surely
have died here. for the we'll was
smoothly lined with brick, and we were
too deep in 1t to get out. had not the
overhsnging crest of the drift fallen
from topheaviness, burying us, at the
same time that-it raised our level suf-
ficiently to enable US to crawl out.
Shortly after this, that Providence
which SD often interveneS on behalf of
the helpless. led us stumbling and half
frozen to the back door of the house.
Farmer Belkrap had essayed a trip
10 the Darn 10 look AFTER MS STOCK, and
his good lady had lain down for her
regular after dinner nap. leaving the
clearing up to her buxom daughter.
Susie. The old lady had just dozed
off on the sitting room lounge when.
like incarnate spirits of the storm, we
two derelicts fell into the entry. The
last of our strength left us there. and
it was merely two heaps of rags. ice
and snow that confronted the fright
ened women when they opened the
inner door. Susie was the first to iden-
tify US as human beings, and together
they dragged us inside.
The next thing saw was brown-eyed
Susie busting about the table. where
Harry was manfully attacking a stack
OF buckwheat cakes. which Mrs. Belk-
nap was straining every nerve to keep
replenished. / was soon seated oppo-
site Harry. Susie double banked her
mother at the griddle. and we sent the
level of the buckwheat -four barrel
down as though the bottom had fallen
out of it. The famine relieved we
cleaned up a bit. and the old gentle
man came in and endorsed the hearty
welcome we had already received from
his women folks. He told us the well
we fell into was forty feet deep and
had been abandoned when he was a |
boy, because the water got spilled