Show A STORY it was so quiet outside that when the long freight train would come to a standstill with an abrupt awk awkward vard jerk we could almont hear tilt tha big drifting flakes as they fell not a breath of air was stirring and tilt bis big round moon filtered down through gli tile snowstorm with a white softened light that revealed nearby near by objects lu in a strange ghostly sort of a way the soft coal fire that splattered spluttered ed el fitfully in the old fashioned cast iron upright stove lacked cheer enough to break the spell of the outside air without knowing precisely why we sat mostly in silence or muttered an occasional monosyllabic observation as to how bow soon we might reach jersey city we were four hours behind time and somewhere back of us we ae knew was the west shore express likewise behind time and endeavoring to make up something of its lost run rua sitting in the little red caboose in the rear of the big freight train rumbling along through a blind jog fog of snow enow with a flying express at our heels gave an uncanny sensation that 1 I for one did not relish in the least the drummer who hill had boarded the train at it newburg sat morosely on a fill pile e of grips which afforded him a softer seat than the hard wooden benches strung along the sides of the car A couple of shippers anxiously discussed the prospects for getting their stock to market without having them half frozen to death at the entrance of joe the brakeman however the glum little party seemed to thaw at once ile ho swung down off the root roof of the last bos car and in through the door in a cheery I 1 wholesome sort of fashion that warmed us it at once joe said one of the shippers be we going to reach jersey city afore christmas this good enough for you to live in llowd you like to be out braai braking ing tonight to night taint no snap a fact the sip shipper absented no you bet it aint said joe doci decisively ci but this aint a patch 1 g to what it Is sometimes w something in the ili manner anner in joe carefully filled bib cub cob kilpe took a bit of stick from the floor puked it into the lire fire and lit ill ills hla pipe bioly and thoughtfully indicated that a story was mas coming Str strange auge said joe at last with a ruminant look into the lire fire and 1 a I long steady pull at his pipe somehow bome how tonight reminds we me of the day afore Chilst mas nias two years ago that was as when we brought johnny haines home guess yuu you must a known julian johnny ili he added turning to the shipper 1 nope hoard of him do on oil joo joe what was aas thu the story 1 not of a one ode joe replied de dc pre predating cating ly jut just a yam yain only its a little out of the common run the firby day I 1 ever saw johnny I 1 thought lie he was about the hands handsom oniest cit lid lad I 1 ever sot set ebes ou on lie ile canie came up ili on no 6 on her first we used to meet often up and down doid the road and got to know each other pretty well lie ile nas ns one of lail laili i with a freih aluk and white complexion and a jolly laugh that maile 3 ou NN warm arm up to him at once ile he was straight and strong and when lien le ito used to stand jauntily on top of tue the car the train going folly miles an hour and he be not seeming to think it was moving at all there a girl along ill alio road that a smile for him as lie went by the lad was wag anxious to stick and worked hard and as bi he kept ills his mouth shut pretty alobe it was a long time before we found out anything about who ho he was ile he hat had little ways about him that made us think once in ili a while that he been brought up to work and his hands at first were as ai soft and white as a girls one of the fellows told us a story of how johnny belonged to a good family faintly but got kicked out for some reason or other but we always thought he made it up and in fact we never did tind find out his story until that night I 1 mean the night we took him home hoine joe stopped pulled vigorously at ills pipe for a few minutes blinked rather suspiciously auspiciously several times aud and finally the rather husky voice went on it seems that the lads ladis name at all ile he took that to conceal his own ills first name really was wag johnny though and as thit tha t was what everybody culled called him the last seem to make so much difference when he be first came on the road he was a little past 20 all and his open boyish ways made some of the fellows guy him and want to play tricks on him at first but it take them long to flad find out that lie had plenty of mettle A gang of us were nere laying around the albany roundhouse one day walting waiting for a train to bo be made up when bill lawson began to nag him and see if he get a tight fight out of h him it seems s they had some trouble down the road and when bill had offered to lo tight fight johnny had bad refused lie ile tried to keep out of bills way but when bill said sald he was afraid johnny turned and walked squarely up ill to him and said quietly you take that back I 1 never know knew just liow how it was aas done but bill made some sort of a feint fein feinsand tand I 1 all of the next moment the big hulking lubber was vas lying on the ground bill seem to know what lilt hit him but lie he went nent at johnny with fill such a savage look that a lid lad without genuine pluck would have turned feather but when bill lay apran sprawling ling ou on the ground a second time we ne found out that johnny was a scientific boxer there was an ugly gleam in bills eye when lie he got up and as he got close up to johnny all 0 of it a sudden he f flourished h a big jackknife he be always carried ilow how lie he got it out of ills his pocket I 1 never could tell lie he made a lunge but johnny lodged dodged cleverly and the knife just grazed his face ue ile was a on bill quicker than it takes to tell it choking the life out of him we started to separate thern them but when wo ine found that johnny had bill so that he be could not do any damage with the knife we lie let them fight it out bill finally held up lila his hand band for mercy and then johnny lot let him up after ye we got them cooled off johnny made bill shake hands and though he show allow it then I 1 think afterward bill came to think as much of him as the rest of us up the road not very far from albany there Is a pretty little farm that runs down to the river and right at tile the corner of it was a water tank it happened that on this farm there was a dark eyed little girl alio who was the idol of fill all tile the boys along the road she flirt with us but she used often to come down to the water tank and get little packages which the engineer who was a friend of the faill family Y used to bring down from albany she was plump and peachy with dark eyebrows and long lashes and under thew them the prettiest pair of leyes eyes I 1 ever saw there one of us who ha hawe haie we married her quick if shed had us but all she was sort 0 reserved and shy and none done of us had nerve enough to make love to her all except johnny all the girls smiled on oil johnny and he be smiled on them lie ile have to see the lass twice before lie he was head over heels in love with her ind and it very long before lie ho made her know all about it il to woo was to win nila with nith johnny and regular as his train passed the farm jonny jenny that was the little dame s name was always there to meet him we used to chair johnny a good deal over the matter but we get much out of him somehow through the engineer or somebody though we lie found out that johnny was going to marry the girl if lie he could get ills his father to consent ile he very well marry on tile salary be was getting as a raw brakeman things ran along through the summer and into the fall and we noticed that johnny had got very quiet and reber reserved ved like and was evidently brooding ia over something at last we found out that johnny had been pron promised libed a raise and that along about tile the holidays lie was to be made a passenger brakeman and then ile he was doing to get Ill mulled there one of us its that glad of it or who envied him ills his good luck the fall stretched WRY way into the winter I 1 remember ind and my it limuti beautiful ful weather stand up tip on top of ft a car and as ag the train wound along tile ller shore nille milo after mile just drinking in the air all anil view bulking balking is a hird hard life lots of danger and pretty slim pay but those days wed ed forget all about tile the hard hardships and evera ever thin thing else johnny was till nil the saint train with fill tile me and happy as a 1 lark thinking how lie would ljuljd ninny anany nut and go up till to to lo live I 1 to notice though that every once in a while ills brow would cloud up as if he was thinking of something that hurt him such weather last though aud and when the end came it came calne with a squall the file thermometer dropped forty degrees and a cold driving rain that had set in in the afternoon turned toward night into a drifting blinding snow we had a big train that night and with the snow and the sleet and the cold it ga gaie C us no end of trouble she patted three or four times gong not more than twenty rulles and it was cold dangerous work slipping along tile the top setting boiling brakes or getting down to make couplings the wind huid and whistled and tile the snow cut yo your ur face like going through a hedge it was nas dark and the lanterns show plain through lili the snow and everything thin seemed to go wrong several cv eral we re thought we wore nore stalled in the drifts but wed med uncouple and send bend tile engine and two or thrle three ca cars rs through tin ill drift and then lien back up kill and take tile the rest of the train through we wanted to get through to 0 o Albin AI bini 1 for the next day ma was s a I 1 lay RY off 11 and ILI I 1 HO 0 days after ill that a t ca came me christmas johnny an and I 1 fought like beavers against agal 11 ailt tile the cold aud and I 1 tell aou it was ticklish work I 1 felt more anxious about johnny than I 1 did about tuy myself sulf for I 1 was mas old at the bub business and lie ho was now and I 1 know how easy it was for a sudden jerk to solid send a nun mail lying flying down between tile the wheels but john uy listen ile he salt said ili ho afraid and just then the whistle N sounded bounded down brakes we were sitting bitting 11 in the caboose shivering around a dh ty little lire fire I 1 had frozen throe three of ni nn j fingers lind and I 1 thought my lily oarl cara were fi osted too yu you see lilt storm call canu so sudden budden we ve hive time to get on any ally mun muff lors lorg and the mittens wore were thin well we no climbed out and johnny ran on ahead that ile ho was aas all ri right bt and hed take the front the cars on oil top bere iere Is as slippery its as glass and NA wo to hall almost to creep along front from one cue ear ar to another to keep from falli ing off for she was running at a i good pace and n nil the snow ou oil the hie tracks matle made the cars lurch nud lind swing I 1 looked HI and through the snow and tile the dark I 1 the landini landi nark irk and knew we were dearing the water titer N tank i where here johnnys girl lived just at that nio went ax nt the train gave gae ft a frightful jerk and I 1 saw the engine go rearing in fill air and about a 11 hundred feet ahead abend i I 1 saw a 1 lantern swing wildly in the air and go eo down I 1 went flat fiat on the car and hung there for dear life N we ie e stopped slopped la in ten or twenty yards and I 1 swung oil off the car liko ilko mad great god I 1 thought it if that was johnny something made tile me feel that lie he had gone under the wheels nod and w when IA en I 1 crawled ahead it n few cars there I 1 1 found him lying all white and still lie ile was too much stunned to say a word we picked him up and started to cat cairy ry him to the house bouse NN where here jenny lived I 1 saw that the wheels hid had gone over both legs over one near the thigh and the other below belov the knee my but bill lie he wag waa a game lad for all the torture of carrying him up the hill wring a word from him we knocked at the alie door and said one of the boys lilt had gut got hurt burt that the engine had jumped tile track A white little face came to the door and looked at us a rno moment ment and then as soon as she saw we me and my face jenny bli ticked out its johnny but she faint or cry nor say another word we just carried him in fit and put him on the bed and slie she took charge of him one of the boys rode over to get a doctor but when lie came lie saw baw at once that it was no use it az was lg only a question of how bow long johnny could survive the shock ile he lay there mere very quietly and finally when the doctors examina examination tiou was inas finished lie ho sao sad Is there any show old man 1 I reply but he knew as is I 1 turned my head away what the answer was wag johnny was quiet for a moment and then pulling jennys hand with his own Ne weakly akly ho e said in a husky voice little girl I 1 want 10 po go home borne and that he insisted iu an all ib 1111 rest of the night we think tha thed ed be alive by morning hut but ile ha was inas and wo me decided to put him hial on in board the morning express tha ing train lad hid thrown it alio le en engine lne out of the road and cleared thi trick track and an when lien the express came down we flagged her and took johnny aboard all jenny would toll tell us was that ills his father lived in new york but she gave the conductor an address for a n N ire we think that he would last the journey and about halt half way ay down he suddenly iud denly clutched jennys vand aind hard and then lay back still the little girl throw threw herself upon him hill baug as if her heart would break lint but it do any good poor johnny was gone joe paused a moment and looked into the fire well he said to cut it short 11 hea ben we got into jersey city johnny s father was there it take more than a glance at his clothes and ills portly bearing to tell me thit that lie was a rich man ile he sprang into tio car and would have bare pushed rue me out of 0 tha road I 1 know knew who he was and I 1 held on oil to hill and I 1 said wait a 1 inn uto johnny was cletty badly hill ile he grabbed tile me like a vise and said in a set net voice can call lie live I 1 shook my lily head and lie he gasped Is 12 he e 1 I led him over to where the boy lay but lie want to see hill liviu lie ile looked very haid at the little arl or who iho sat there sobbing and said i uw w 13 Is tills jonny jenny and rid then lie took her very duif quietly fly in his arnis anus and kissed her 1 I 1 went to the lie funeral the next day that was the lay day IL before fore christmas Chiist mas the old inns hair had and his bib face was us as lined and algid is as though lie was mounting a scaffold ile he was twenty years older than the morning I 1 saw win him list it seems that johnny had been brought up tip like hobt boys to have all the money he wanted allied ile he got wild and in with ith it fast gang and to try to ceib him his bis father inho was as a wealthy banker zot got him a place in a store as ca cashier bliler johnnys allowance enough and he made it up out of the cash dr draw cravor avor or when it was discovered ills his father made up tile lie anio amount and then sent ho lioner spoke to min him afterward and when nihon Job johnny tiny after 11 lears guild good service on the rold road appealed to him for renoly enough to got get married marr iid on the of old man returned d the letter I 1 found it in ili johnnys coat pocket the morning wo io took look him home the train whistled for 1 a I gia station giatron tion and add ane joe grabbing ills lantern escaped into tile night aej the f falling alling I 1 suon suo new york 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