Happy Days for Boys and Girls Part 24

"You would have thought he fairly snorted to his work, going at the rate o' forty miles an hour we were, and at last we got abreast o' the runaway engine, and could have pa.s.sed him, but that would have been useless. There wasn't another driver on the whole line would have thought of the thing so quickly as Mat did, nor could have regulated the speed so nicely to a moment. The two different engines were running just opposite each other on the two different lines, the runaway being a good deal worn out now, and going much slower than at first, when Mat he says to me, hoa.r.s.ely, 'Jump across. It'll be safer if I stick here to hold the regulator; but I'll go, if you'd rather stay.' I had such confidence in Mat Whitelaw, that I could trust my life with him before any mortal man; and the instant he gave the word, I jumped, and did it safe. We each put on our brakes, and took breath, and desperately hot we both were, I can a.s.sure you."

"Were you not terribly afraid?" said Archy, who had been almost breathless during the recital.

"I can't say that we were," said John, coolly; "but I'll tell you I was frightened enough the next moment, when Mat looked at his watch, and sees that the down express was due in a few minutes on his line. I believe that Mat thought more o' the pa.s.sengers that might be smashed, and the risk for the Bison, than o' his own safety. He said it would never do to reverse the engines now; but if we kept on, he thought there might yet be time to run into the siding at the nearest station. So on we went once more at increased speed, straight on ahead, though it was like running into the very face of the danger.

The telegraph had been hard at work, and the station people had been laying their heads together, and they were at the points. So, when they heard the whistle, and saw Mat putting on the brake, they at once opened the points,--not a moment too soon, I can tell you,--and in he ran into the siding. Now, what Mat did, sir, was what I call about equal to most generals in war, and as great a benefit to society."

"He must be a brave fellow," said Archy; "and I hope you were both rewarded for it."

"The company behaved very handsome," was the answer. "Mat got on to the Great Western line at once; but the worst of it is, he and I are parted, and the old Bison; he felt his loss as much, if not more than me."

Mrs. Falkoner, who had come in during the latter part of the story, now said,--

"But tell the young gentleman what you did your own self, and what the company thought of your conduct."

"Tuts, Mary," he answered; "I did nought extraordinary; there ain't a man in the service but could have done the same, had they known old Bison as well as I did."

"I should like to hear it, John," said Archy, who was standing ready to leave the brother and sister alone.

"Well, 'cept it be to tell you how I got to be driver of the Bison myself, it's not worth the listening to. When Mat left, Bill Jones got to be my mate--the worst driver on the line; at least he couldn't manage the Bison. He did not understand that engine one bit, and was constantly getting into trouble, till I was driven almost wild. Bill would say, 'Bison, indeed! he ought to be called Donkey; it would suit his kicking ways better.' It was quite true he kicked, but he never did it with Mat on him, and went along the rails as smooth as oil.

Well, at one part o' the line, there is a gradual long incline, and one day we were just putting on more steam to run up, when we sees at the top two or three coaches coming tearing down straight upon us. We knew there was a heavy excursion train on ahead, and we had been going rather slow on that account, and this was some of the coaches that had got uncoupled from the rest. Well, Bill, my mate, no sooner saw it coming, than says he, 'Jump for your life!' and out he went. But I knew what a quick engine the Bison was, and, moreover, I saw our guard had noticed the danger, too, and would work with me; so I reversed the engine, and ran back, until the coaches came up to us, but did no further damage save giving us a bit of a shake as they struck on the old Bison; and so we drove them afore us right up to the station. Bill was killed, as might have been expected, for he had no faith in the Bison whatever; and so the company, they came to see I understood that engine, and they made me driver o' him from that time."

Archy now bade the worthy engine-driver good night, saying that he should always take a greater interest in engines than ever before, and that he should have liked very much to have seen such a famous one as the Bison.

John Stocks evidently took this speech as a personal compliment, and, in consequence, bade Archy a friendly good by, saying, as he did so, "that people nowadays talked of nothing but ships and extraordinary guns, and what not, but to his mind a good engine was before them all."

MRS. GEORGE CUPPLES.

THE CHILDREN'S SONG.

Merrily sang the children, as their mother softly played; With eager, outstretched faces a pretty group they made; Their clear and bird-like voices ran loudly through the air, Till "Baby" heard the music, and crept from stair to stair, That she might join the singers, and in their gladness share.

Dear, merry little warblers! I love to hear you, too; Your fresh, unworldly feelings, your hearts so fond and true, Give to your songs a sweetness that no other strains possess; They soothe the hara.s.sed spirit when troubles thickly press, And evoke the warm pet.i.tion, "O G.o.d, OUR CHILDREN BLESS!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS.]

PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS.

How earnest Kate and Constance and Brother w.i.l.l.y look, Counting up varied treasures, ship, bat and doll and book!

The three are very busy, and very happy too, Trying to mend up old things to look almost like new.

The book was rather shabby, but Kate with paste and thread Has made it firm and tidy, and rubbed it clean with bread.

And now, ere she resigns it, she lingers, glancing o'er The pretty picture pages and well-known lines once more.

Constance has dressed the dolly--you see how nice it looks-- And all its things are fastened with little strings or hooks.

The ship with clean new rigging--Will's work--they eye with pride, And they have quite a drawerful of other things beside--

Boxes of beads and sweeties, and many a top and ball, Saved for the coming Christmas; and who's to have them all?

Not their own merry playmates, bright girl and happy lad, Who'll meet for winter pastime like them well fed and clad.

No; children in close alleys, or the large workhouse near, Our little friends--obeying Christ's words--will please and cheer.

And their own Christmas pleasures will seem more glad and sweet For knowing such poor neighbors enjoy for once a treat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A man stands over Que, who is asleep on his mailbag}]

QUE.

He was a wee bit of a boy to carry the United States mail on his back, seven miles, every day. He was only eleven years old, and as long, to an inch, as the mail bag, which was just three feet and eleven inches long. When he went along the road, you would sometimes see him, and sometimes the bag; that was as you happened to be on this or the other side of him. Many persons' hard hearts have been made to open a crevice, at sight of the little fellow, to let a little jet of pity spirt out for him. But "The Point" ran out three miles and a half to the south of the county road and the stage coach, and the nearest coach post-office; and because it was only a small point, and spa.r.s.ely settled, it couldn't afford a horse for the short distance; and because it was a short distance, no man, or boy, who was able to do a full day's work, would break into it to walk the seven miles; and because it was seven miles, no one who was not well could walk so far every day, and the year round. So it happened that the job was up for bids one spring, and the person who would carry the mail from Gingoo to the Point for the smallest amount of money, was to have it for a year.

One woman offered to carry it for eighty dollars; another for seventy; one big boy offered for sixty-five; he'd make the girls at home do the work, he said,--they hadn't anything else to do,--and he would give them each a new ribbon to pay for it: and between you and me, I am very glad that that boy didn't get the job.

Without saying a word to his family about it, Que made up his mind that he would carry the mail himself. When the others sent in their bids he sent in his, for fifty dollars. _So_ it happened that Que was mail-carrier. He was so little and bow-legged, that there were not many things that he could do; for instance, he couldn't run. His head and feet were very large, and his arms and intermediate body very small; therefore he could dream and wonder what he should do when he grew up, and walk (with care) as much as he pleased, but was not a favorite among the boys in playing games.

Of course he was not baptized into the name Que, but was called, by his parents and the christening minister, John Quincy Adams Pond, Jr.; named for his father, you see. They began to call him Que before he was out of his babyhood; for they had one boy named John Lee, but as they always called him Lee, they entirely forgot that fact till after the ceremony of Que's christening. And they really weren't much to blame, for they had nine other boys, and poor memories; and though both are misfortunes, they can't be helped. To avoid mixing their two Johns, they called one Lee and the other Que.

Que looked upon seven miles a day as no walk at all, and upon fifty dollars a year as a fortune, and upon "United States mail-carrier" as a t.i.tle little below "Hon." or "Esq." He had hoped, all his life, that he should, some fine day, have a right to one or the other of these t.i.tles. Probably the fact that his name already ended with a "Jr."

excited his ambition in that particular direction. Money and dignity seemed to Que the two things most to be desired in life, unless I might add a small family.

Now, we will leave Que's antecedents behind, and go on to his life while he carried the mail; and a very queer little life it was, as you will say when you get to the end of it, though I don't know when that will be, for Que isn't there himself yet. The mail contract was from July 1, 1860, to July 1, 1861, and if your mathematics are in good running order, you will see that that was just a year.

July 1, 1860, was as fine a day in Gingoo as any day in the year; and Que was in as high spirits as on any day in the course of his life.

Unfortunately the mail coach reached Gingoo exactly at forty minutes past eleven, unless the driver got drunk or fell asleep, which happened about two hundred and forty days in the year. But whether sober, drunk, or asleep, the four coach horses always stood before Gingoo office door by twelve o'clock at latest.

It makes no difference to you or to me when the coach stood there; but it made a great deal of difference to Que, for twelve o'clock on the finest day in the year, and that day the first of July, is apt to be rather warm; and in the year 1860 it was _very_ warm. Nevertheless, at quarter past twelve, Que started with the bag. I, happening to be at the right side of him, saw only the bag start with Que.

Perhaps you don't see why Que should have started right in the heat of the day; but if you had been Que, and could have heard all the Pointers clamoring for their mail, you would have started just when Que did. The mail-bag was made of very dark leather, and drew the sun tremendously. Now, as Que had on a pair of light linen pants and a little gray lined coat, of course he ought to have walked between the bag and the sun; but not being a scientific boy, he didn't think of that, and slung the bag over his sunny shoulder, and from that height it trailed to the ground.

Que walked on as fast as he could, trying not to think too much of the heat and the weight; but the peculiar odor that the sun brought from the leather bag was blown up his nose, and down his throat, and into his ears, by a strong south wind that blew, and before Que had time to think whether he had better or better not, he was lying fast asleep by the side of the road, on the gra.s.s; rather he was lying on the mail-bag, and that was lying on the gra.s.s. Why didn't he fall on the other side? For two reasons; first, he was attracted mail-bag way by the sleepy odor before spoken of; and secondly, the weight was all that way, and as he began to sleep before he began to drop, of course the bag was his natural bed when he did drop.

The Point road was lonesome, and it must have been quite an hour before any one came that way. Then a man and two horses, and a cart loaded high with laths, were seen coming over the hill; that is, they would have been seen, if Que hadn't been asleep just then.

"Hollo! what's all this?" said the driver when he got opposite the bag and Que.