An engineer on a locomotive going across the western prairie day after
day, saw a little child come out in front of a cabin and wave to him, so
he got in the habit of waving back to the child, and it was the day’s joy
to see this little one come out in front of the cabin door and wave to
him while he answered back. One day the train was belated, and it came
on to the dusk of the evening. As the engineer stood at his post he saw
by the headlight that little girl on the track, wondering why the train
did not come, looking for the train, knowing nothing of her peril. A
great horror seized upon the engineer. He reversed the engine. He gave
it in charge of the other man, and then he climbed over the engine, and
he came down on the cowcatcher. He said though he had reversed the
engine, it seemed as though it were going at lightning speed, faster and
faster, though it was really slowing up, and with almost supernatural
clutch he caught the child by the hair and lifted it up, and when the
train stopped, and the passengers gathered around to see what was the
matter, there the old engineer lay, fainted dead away, the little child
alive and in his swarthy arms.