The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-12-25

blower, inhaling smoke and sulphurous
fumes, would have been Invaluable to
Dante when seeking local color.
drove the dry plugs tightly. They alb
sorbed moisture and swelled until they
were the tightest flues in her. Twas
a good job and well done. The per-
spiration CONCEALED on my face the in
stant / stuck it out of the firebox door,
and before my feet were out there were
.icicles on my whiskers.
1t was getting late in the afternoon,
and was never so hungry in my life
before Harry asked me if there was
''any cold tapioca puddin' in the cup
board" 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 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
temperature that meant almost instant
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 COM
ing down with painful bang upon the
instep of the right. This occurred at
stated intervals, like pile driving. Tir-
ing of the monotony, sought to change
my position and became aware of an
animated SNOWFALL vainly striving to
enter the gangway. l 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 shov
eled coal against the curtain to keep
the cold air out, calked our window
sash with waste, and l pumped her
full again, and we shivered and dozed
and starved through the longest night
l ever knew.
The temperance of the cab win
dows notified me of the approaching
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, was disguised by the
delicate tracery of that master silver
smith, Jack Frost. To the artistic sense
of the well fed and comfortably clad it
hox hoo nj 10 6r11I
ed mind it was emblematic only of the
biting cold that ragged without. Harry,
tied in a hard knot, was snoring sound
ly in his corner. 1 had him spread the
fire, and pumped her full again.
We must have food at any cost.
knew of but one house in that locality,
an ordinary story and half farmhouse
on crossroad about half mile from
where we lay. 1t was invisible through
the storm, but we knew it's approx
mate direction. We left everything in
the best order possible and started, the
wind at our backs, Harry in the lead.
1 shall never forget that trip, foun-
dering aimlessly through the drifts like
a pair of blind mice, if l live to be a
hundred. Three minutes after leaving
the engine we could not have found
cur way back to it, no matter what
the necessity. Harry being younger
and lighter than 1, l had all l could do
to keep him in sight. We fell into an
abandoned well. Fortunately it was
already nearly full of snow; so, barring
a few bruises, we received no injuries.
We would surely have died here for
the well was smoothly lined with brick,
and we were too deep in it to get out,
had not the overhanging crest of the
drift fallen from top heaviness, burying
us at the same time that it raised our
level sufficiently to enable us to crawl
out.
Shortly after this that Providence
which so often intervenes ON behalf of
the helpless led us stumbling and half
frozen to the back door of the house.
Farmer Belknap had essayed trip
to the barn to look after his 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
Oi lhS oAllAAi6 AOOil iOuhSC W ACAl, llhC
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 frightened
women when they opened the inner
door. Susie was the first to identify us
as human beings, and together they
dragged us inside.
The next thing l saw was brown
eyed Susie bustling about the table,
where Harry was manfully attacking
a stack of buckwheat cakes which
Mrs. Bellnap was straining every
nerve to keep replenished. l was soon
seated opposite Harry. Susie double
banked her mother at the griddle, and
we sent the level of the buckwheat
flour barrel down as though the bot
tom had fallen out of it. The famine
relieved, we cleaned up bit, and the
old gentleman came in and indorsed
the hearty welcome we had already re-
ceived from his women folks He told
us the we'll we fell into was forty feet
deep and had been abandoned when
he was Il boy because the water got
spilled somehow" AS none but his
own folks ever went there and nobody
had ever fallen into it before, he hadn't
bothered to cover it up. We knew now
that the avalanche that enabled us to
get out was not the first that had fallen
into it, and we thanked our lucky stars
that we didn't start the day before.
Mrs. Belknap and Susie soaked out my