The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-24

was a futter of water in the bottom
gauge-cock. 50 1 slipped and pumped her
until she threw water out of the stack.
The water was squirting out of four
leaky flues in way that would soon set
us 10 shoveling snow into the tank. In
spite of my sore finger its clumsy dress
ing and dull tools, l made fire taper hue
plugs out of piece of coal board. Har-
~ covered the fire with fine ccal and
snow, and put on the blower to carry Off
the smoke and gas. / threw the coal
board in on the banked fire, and crawled
in with my plugs and hammer.
had forgotten that 1t was hot any
where, but the experience l went through
in that hot fireboX, perched over minia-
ture volcano, surrounded by boiling water,
and. in spite of the blower, inhaling smoke
and sulDhurous fumes would have been
invaluable to Dante, when seeking To-
cal color. l drove the dry plugs tightly;
they absorbed moisture and swelled until
they were the tightest hues in her. Twas
good job. and well done. The perspira-
ton CONCEALED on my face the instant l
stuck it out the fire box door, and before
my feet were out, there we're icicles on my
whiskers.
1t was getting late in the afternoon,
and was never so hungry in my life be-
fore Harry asked me II there was ANY
cold tapicca puddin' in the cupboard?' l
told him there must be grub in the ca
boose, 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 instant death to the partially dis
abled.
I sat and dozed miserably, in the cor
ner of the cab. AS l repeatedly lost con-
-ln1s. raTf ~
boiler butt, the heel of the left coming
down with a painful bang upon the in
step of the right. This occurred at stated
intervals, like pile driving. firing of the
monotony, l sought to change my position,
and became aware of an animated snow
ball, vainly striving to enter the gangway.
l pulled him aboard, and when sufficiently
thawed. he reported the caboose deserted,
and not a 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 had 50
long looked forward was about over. 1t
soon became dark We shoveled coal
against the curtain, to keep the cold air
out, caull1ed our window sash with waste,
I pumped her full again, and we shivered
and dozed and starved through the long
est night ever knew.
The temperance Of the cab windows
notified me of the approaching dawn.
What a dismal sight! Our usually neat
cab was thickly begrimed with coal dust.
Every bolthead and bit of iron in the cab
ITSELF as we'll as the windows, was dis
gulsed by the delicate tracery of that mas
ter silversmith, Jack Frost. To the ar
tistic sense of the well-fed and COM
fortaby clad, it would have been beauH-
full; to my duiled mind, II was ennblematic
only of the biting cold that ragged without.
Harry tied in a hard knot, was snoring
soundly I'm his corner. had him spread
the fire. and I 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 a cross road, about half a mile from
where we lay. 1t was invisible through
the storm, but we knew it's approximate
direction. We left everything In the best
order possible, and started the wind at
our backs, Harry in the lead.
/ shall never forget that trip, founder
ing aimlessly through the drifts like pair
Of blind mice, If I live to be 100. Three
minutes after leaving the engine we could
not nave found our way back to it, no
matter what the necessity. Harry being
younger and lighter than I, l had all l
could do to keep him in sight. We fell
into an abandoned well. Fortunately 1t
was already nearly fun of snow, so. bar
ring 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 overhangng crest of Inc drift
fallen from topheaviness, burying us, az
the same time that it raised our level suf-
ficiently to enable us to crawl out
Shortly after this, that providence which
so often intervenes on behalf of the help
less, led us stumbling and half-frozen to
the back door of the house.
Farmer Belknap had essayed a trip 10
the barn to look after mis- 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 roc
lounge, when like incarnate spirits of the
storm, we two derelicts fell into the en-
try. The last of our strength left us
there, and 1t was merely two heaps of
rags ice and snow. that confronted the
frightened 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 I saw was brown
eyed Susie, bustling about the Ia
BILE where Harry was manfully
attacking a stack of buckwheat
cakes which Mrs. Belknap was
straining every nerve TO keep re-
plenished. / was soon seated opposite
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 il.
The famine relieved, we cleaned up bit,
and the old gentleman came in and in
dorsed 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 spill
ed, somehow" AS none but his own folks
ever went there, and nobody had ever fall
len into It before. he hadn't bothered to
cover it up We knew now, that the ava
lanche that enabled us to get out was
not the first that had fallen into 1t, and
we thanked our lucky stars that we didn't
start the day before. Mrs. Bellknap and
Susie soaked out my wounded finger and
dressed Il with some Of the soothing salve,
homemade for father, when he cut his
foot with the ak.
The warmth, light and comfort of the
coy parlor. not to mention the congenial
company, contrasted so strongly with the
bitter gale and the dirty, cherries cab