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

dropped the curtain Harry put the
blower on quarter of a turn, to carry
of this gas; we lit our pipes, cooked
our heels on the boiler butt, and listen
ed in comfort TO the bowling blast
without Ash sat and pulled on my
fragrant old brierwood my gaze be-
came riyeted en- the only thing visible,
the steam gauge, like a spectral face
suspended in the center of the uniform
blackneSs. The soothing hum of the
blower, the warmth and sense OF COIL
ness. combined with the hypnotic eff
feet OF my fixed gaze, set me to dream
ing.
Tomorrow would be Christmas, and
mother was with us. 1t was her f1rst
visit since my marriage. Katie. her
poor little heart a-fiutter at the pros
pect of a visit from that dreaded IN
spector general. her mother-in-law. had
shaved herself nearly to death Three
year-oid Bob had nearly wrecked ms
mothers wonderful patience by his per
sistent efforts to render her labor fu-
tile, and 1 had fingered on the runs
for a month to make sure of being
home on this, the greatest Christmas
that ever. was. For a wonder, mad
not figured in vain. Everything had
come out exactly as l had hoped II
would. would get home early enough
for Christmas dinner. and late enough
sent out again before the next day.
A curling wreath of blue smoke float
ing across the face of the gauge ar
rested the selfish course of my thoughts
end directed them TO the boy on the
other side of the cab. Harry Mervin
had been on the road only a couple or
months. most of which time he had
been firing for me- He was bright,
pleasant and willing. 1t now occurred
20 me that 1 rather liked him. but that
] knew absolutely nothing about him.
1t wasn't so very many years ago that
was a strange boy on this same road
myself And this was Christmas eve.
made pretense of getting light for
my pipe at the gauge lamp, and leaned
across. the boiler.
Where are you going to spend
Christmas, Harry" L shouted above
the noise of the gale and the Stating
OF the curtain.
The fire glowed brightly in the bowl
OF his pipe once, twice, before ne an
swered. He leaned against the boiler
on his side, so that I could barely dis
Germ his features in the dim light, and
replied cheerlesslv:
20, in the board'n' house, 1 guess.
Where else? They're a-goin' to have
roast turkey an cranberry sauce an
plum puddin', hear"
/ soon knew his story-a stepmother
three months after his own mothers
death. and ! mentally added, red
headed stepson. He had picked up
general idea of firing while beating his
way on here from Wisconsin, and hap
pening 10 arrive at our roundhouse just
as a man was urgently needed, he
caught on.
They're calm us" he concluded,
and. giving the bell rope jerk, he
stepped down to hook up his ire
When / got coupled up and he STEP
ped up in the cab again, l said:
I'VE expect to have a little time up
to our house tomorrow, Harry, and
should like to have you come up and
take dinner with us.
THANK you. Alec" he replied;
will"
There was an inch of snow on the
rails when / got my orders to run as
an extra. keeping out of the way of all
regular trains" But Davis, the con-
.ducter, said he had nice, light run
ming train. all loaded with whisk
.brooms and straw hats. was glad
enough to hear it, for there were IFS
miles of iron, slippery with the falling
snow. between 1S's old pilot and home. |
If / averaged the maximum of freight
train speed (twenty miles an hour)
would arrive home by 8 o'clock in the |
morning; but it was a bad night. / |
would never be able to keep them gong |
at that gait, so / promised myself not |
to kick. if / got home by noon; a very |
liberal allowance.
1t was a hard pun out of Tabor's |
Junction. When. the yardmaster hap /
pened to be feeling just right he would 4
let one of the switch engines get in /
behind a. train and give her SHOVE Tor
half or three-quarters of mile, But
Davis was no crony of his, so we didn
get it.
It was q fearful night. The gale |
howled and the snow drove horizontal
" like a sand blast. The wind was on
the fireman,s side which made it pos
sible for me to look out. But all L i
could see was an impenetrable white
screen made visible in one small spot
by the headlight had been easing the
throttle when she slipped-for l would
need all the sand 1 had before got
she nearly stalled. That
wouldn't do, so / gave her a bare taste
and leaned out to hear the gratifying
crunch of it under the wheels.
Harry gripped my shoulder and
shouted:
I wished him the same and MANY OF
'erfi. and noticed it was just IL 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. 1 told the
brakeman to go back on top of the
train and see if the caboose was COM
ing. He went of growing, but he
went. which was the main thing. From
the back OF the tender he gave me
what 1 expected and dreaded-a signal
that the train had broken in two.
whistled the flag back to protect the
rear, and kept on.
| took the cars I had to the next
siding. four miles away. l had two
more cars than the siding would hold.
I backed them all in hard against the
stop-block Then l cut the two head
cars off, pulled them out of the switch,
and backed down the main track with
them. until the engine was behind the
two head cars in the siding. ] had the
cut these two off, and
stocked them out on the main track
ahead of the engine l ran ahead until
the two cars behind the engine We're
over the switch. backed them
in on the siding, leaving the
other two out on the main
track. Then I came out with the en-
CINE and went back after the rest of
the train
/ had a four-mile back-up in the
teeth of the blizzard. l couldn't see
thing. and never knew where 1 was. I
didn't dare go fast, for expected every
minute TO hit the train, and l couldn't
force myself 10 go slow enough to stop
punching a hole in a riewspa-
per- Snow and coal dust swirled up I'M
der the foot of the curtain, binding US,
AID the boiler might have been an ice
cream freezer for all Of its effect on the
/ tried to invent a suit
able reward for the yardmaster at Ia
boris for not giving me shove, only to
remember that engineers seldom have
.hauca tO get SOuara