Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-04-29
Copyright, IVUs, On
Herbert E. Hdmblin
Il = II = = - X

1 pounded my thumb and cut off a
joint of my left foreiinger as the last
end of the last side rod unexpectedly
slipped clear. Harry chewed me to-
bacco poultice and tied it on with a
piece of rag torn from his jumper. We
left the rods In the snow, gave the
rails and tires n good oiling and hur-
ried up into the cab. There was fiut-
ter of water in the bottom gauge cock,
SO slipped and pumped her until she
threw water out of the stack.
The water was squirting out of four
leaky flues in a way that would soon
set us to shoveling snow into the tank.
In spite of my sore finger, its clumsy
dressing and dull tools, made five
taper flue plugs out of piece of coal
board. Harry covered the fire with
fine coal and snow and put on the
blower to carry off the smoke and gas.
threw the coal boards in ON the
banked fire and crawled in with my
plugs and a hammer.
had forgotten that it was hot any
where, but the experience went
through in that hot firebox, perched
over a miniature volcano, surrounded
by boiling water, and. in spite Of the
blower, inhaling smoke and sulphurous
fumes, would have been Invaluable to
Dante when seeking local color I
drove the dry plugs tightly. They alb
sorbed moisture and swelled until they
We're the tightest flues in her. Twas
n good job and well done. The per-
SEPARATION CONCEALED on my face the in
slant l stuck it out of the fireboN door,
and before my feet We're out there We're
icicles on my whiskers.
1t was getting late in the afternoon,
and was never so hungry in my life
before. Harry asked me il there was
"any cold tapioca puddin' in the cup
board" l 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. II
anything happened, he would be a
goner, with nobody near to help and a
death to the partially disabled.
sat and dozed miserably in the cor
ner of the cab. AS l 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. / 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 SHOW
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
would have been beautiful; to my dull
ed mind it was emblematic only of the
biting cold that ragged without. Harry,
tied in n hard knot, was snoring sound
ly in his corner. had him spread the
fire, and l pumped her full again.
We must have food at any cost. I
knew Of but one house in that locality,
an ordinary story and a half farmhouse
on crossroad about half a 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.
l shall never forget that trip, tioun-
dering aimlessly through the drifts like
a pair Of blind mice, If live to be
hundred. 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 keep him in sight. We fell into an
abandoned we'll Fortunately 1t 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 heayiness, 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
Ills 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
Oh the sitting room lounge when, like
lncarnate spirits of the storm, we two
1erelicts 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
1oor. Susie was the first to identity us
Is human beings, and together they
ragged us inside
The next thing l saw was brown
eyed Susie bustllng about the table,
Where Harry was manfully attacking
stack Of buckwheat cakes which
Mrs. Belknap was strainlng every
lerve to keep replenished was soon
eated opposite Harry. Susie double
banked her mother at the grlddle, and
We sent the level of the buckwheat
Jour barrel down as though the hot