Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-23

only a couple of months. most of which
time he had been firing for me. He was
bright, pleasant and willing. II now oc-
Cured to me that l rather liked him but
that / knew absolutely nothing about him.
II wasn't so very many years ago that
was a strange boy on this same road my
self; and this was Christmas eve. / made
q pretense of getting light for my pipe
a. the gauge lamp, and leaned across the
boiler.
Where are you going to spend Christ
mas, Harry" I shouted above the noise Of
the gale and the Stating Of the curtain.
The fire Slowed brightly in the bowl Of
his pipe once, twice. before he answered
He leaned against the boiler on his side so
that l could barely discern his features IN
the dim light. and replied cheerlessly:
oh, in the board'n house, guess. Where
else? They're a-goin 10 have roast turkey
hear
soon knew his story-a stepmother three
months after his own mothers death and, |
mentally added. 4 red-headed stepson. He
had picked up q general idea of firing while
beating his way on here from Wisconsin.
and, happening to arrive at our roundhouse
inst as man was urgently needed, he
caught on.
They're calm u.s." he concluded, and,
giving the bellrCpe a jerk. he stepped down
20 hook up his fire.
When i got coupled up and he stepped
up in the cab again | said:
We expect to have a little time up to
our house tomorrow, Harry. and l should
like to have you come up and take dinner
with US"
Thank you. Alec he replied. Il will
There was an inch of snow the rails
when / got my orders TO run as an extra.
keeping out of the way of all regular
trains" But Davis the conductor. said he
had nice, lght-rUnning train. cars all
loaded with whisk broOms and straw hats
j was glad enough to hear it. for there
Were 40 mills of iron, slippery with the
falling snow, between old ISIS pilot and
home. II averaged the maximum of freight
train speed (twenty miles per hour l would
arrive home by 9 o'clock In the morning
but IL was a bad night, l would never be
able 10 keep them going at that gait, so !
promised myself not to kick if / got home
by noon: a very liberal allowance.
1t was a hard pull out of Tabors juno
tion- When the yardmaster happened to
be feeling just right. he would let one OF
the switch engines get in behind a train
and give her a shove for half or three
quarters of mile. But Davis was no
crony Of his, so We didn't get It.
1t was fearful night. The gale howled
and the snow drove horizontally like a
sand blast The wind was on the fireman.
side. which made it possible for me to look
out But all l could see was an impene-
trable white screen. made visible in one
small spot by the headlight. 1 had been
easing the throttle when she slipped-fOr
would need al the sand l had before l got
hpme-until she nearly stalled. That
wouldn't do, so l gave her a bare taste and
leaned out to hear the gratifying crunch of
Il under the wheels.
Harry gripped my shoulder and shouted
Merry Christmas
/ wished him the same and many OF EN-
and noticed that it was just II by the
engine clock. She hadn't slipped since /
gave her the sand, but was putting along
with suspicious freedom; for we were not
up the grade yet. i told the brakeman 10
g. back on top of the train and see if the
caboose was coming. He went off growing,
but he went which was the main thing
From the back OF the tender he gave me
what expected and dreaded-a signal that
the train had broken in two. / whistled the
Nag back to protect the rear and kept on
took the cars had to the next siding
four miles away. l had two more cars
than the siding would hold 1 backed
them all In hard against the stop block
Then i cut the two head cars Off DrI,Ied
them out of the switch, and backed doNr
the main track with them, until the engin.
was behind the two head cars in the sid.
Ing / had the brakeman cut these two
on, and l stocked them out on the MAR
track ahead of the engine. / ran ahead
until the two cars behind the engine were
over the switch. i backed them in on thu
siding, leaving the other two out on tn,
main track Then l came out with tn,
engine and went back after the rest of tn,
train.
/ had four-mile back up in the teetl
Of the blizzard i couldn't see a thing anC
never knew where 1 was. / didn't dare e,
fast, for l expected every minute to hi
the train, and couldn't force myself to g,
slow enough to stop without punchin. s
hole in newspaper. Snow and coal dus
swirled up under the foot of the curtain
binding US, and the boiler might have bee,