THE BEAUTIFUL PASSENGER.
I found the dummy just as I had left it on the preceding day. I kindled
a fire in the furnace, rubbed down the machinery, filled up the water
tank, and took on a supply of coal, which was the kind of fuel intended
to be used under the boiler. I assure my sympathetic reader that I
felt a real pleasure in the discharge of these duties, and in the
consciousness that I was actually the master of the machine. Though my
taste was rather inclined towards the engine of a steamer, I was more
than satisfied with my present position, and deemed myself the luckiest
dog in the world.
Higgins, the invalid student, who was to officiate as conductor, stood
by and watched all my movements with the most intense interest. He
looked like a clever fellow, and I proceeded to make friends with him
in due form, by declaring that I was sorry he was sick.
“I’m not sorry,” said he with a grin. “I’m rather glad I’m sick. In
fact, I’m not very sick.”
“Well, I thought you were; the major said so; at least he said you were
too sick to study, and just sick enough to play.”
“Did he say that?”
“He did.”
“Well, he knows a thing or two,” laughed Higgins. “My mother thinks it
makes my head ache to study; and in fact it does when the lessons are
hard.”
“I dare say. Are they hard to-day?” I asked.
“Not so very hard; but, to tell the truth, I thought there was to be
some fun going on here and I wanted to be on hand. My mother wrote
to the principal that she did not wish me to study very hard, for
something ailed my head.”
“I’m afraid the jar of the dummy will hurt your head,” I suggested.
“Oh, no, it won’t,” protested the candid Higgins. “It feels better now
than it did this morning; in fact, it always feels better after school
begins.”
“But I’m really afraid it will injure you to ride on the dummy, with
all the excitement of the highly responsible position of conductor,”
I added, gravely. “I think I had better mention the matter to Major
Toppleton when I see him.”
“Oh, no; don’t do that,” pleaded Higgins, plaintively. “Between you and
me and the smoke-stack of the dummy, I am as well as you are.”
“Precisely so; and I think the major understands your malady, if the
principal does not.”
“Don’t say a word this time, and I won’t ‘soger’ any more.”
“It’s none of my business, Higgins, but you are sawing off your own
nose, and playing the trick upon yourself. I would be a man and face
the music like one, if I were you.”
“I will face the music if you won’t say anything.”
“All ready, Mr. Conductor!” I shouted, when I had steam enough.
“All aboard!” yelled Higgins, rather glad to change the subject when he
found that I did not appreciate his deception.
I ran the dummy out of the house, and stopped her near the head of the
steamboat wharf. The car was still so great a novelty that many people
gathered around to examine it. The cushions were now well dried, and
though the cloth had suffered somewhat from the effects of the bath, it
looked very nice inside of her.
“Have you a watch, Higgins?” I asked of the gentlemanly conductor.
“Yes,” replied he, producing a small gold one.
“We will leave Middleport on the hour, and Spangleport on the half
hour,” I added. “I wish I had a watch.”
“Why don’t you have one?”
“I’m not a rich man’s son, and I can’t afford to have such playthings.
But I suppose I must get one, if I run on this dummy.”
“I’ll lend you mine for to-day, Wolf.”
“Thank you. I want to time the running, so as to know where we are,” I
answered, taking the watch, and attaching the chain to my vest. “It is
nearly twelve o’clock, and we will start soon.”
“All aboard for Spangleport!” screamed Higgins, as though the
announcement was intended for the people on the other side of the lake.
“Folks will understand that nothing ails your lungs, Higgins, whatever
is the matter with your head,” I added, gently, to the zealous
conductor. “I wouldn’t yell so. Boys always make fools of themselves by
hallooing when there isn’t the least need of it.”
Higgins, in a milder tone, invited the ladies and gentlemen who were
inspecting the car to step in and make the excursion to Spangleport,
promising that they should return in just fifty minutes. Quite a number
of them accepted the invitation; and I was about to start, when I saw
a very beautiful young lady hastening towards us. She was elegantly
dressed, and her movements were as graceful as those of a fawn. The
“gentlemanly conductor” rang the bell for the engine to start, and the
young lady, hearing it, made a motion with her sunshade for us to wait
for her. I was too happy to find she was to be a passenger in the car
to start without her, in spite of my laudable ambition to be “on time.”
The moment Higgins saw her, he jumped off the platform, took off his
cap, bowed and scraped like a French dancing-master, and helped her
up the steps. There was a glass window in the partition between the
engine-room and the passenger compartment, for which at that moment I
felt extremely grateful to the builder, for it enabled me to obtain an
occasional glance at the beautiful young lady. I beg leave to say that
this unwonted enthusiasm on my part was as surprising to myself as it
will be to my readers, for I had hardly ever looked at any person of
the feminine persuasion before, except my mother and sisters. I had
certainly never seen any lady who attracted me so strongly, or for whom
I felt so great an admiration. She was not more than fifteen or sixteen
years of age; but she wore a long dress, and had a mature bearing.
Higgins conducted her to a seat, and she took possession of it as
gracefully as though she had been schooled in the polite art for a
whole lifetime. I could not help gazing at her, and I envied Higgins
the rapture of being permitted to speak to her. She looked around, and
bowed to several persons in the car, with the sweetest smile that ever
lighted up a young lady’s face. I was wholly absorbed in gazing at her,
and actually forgot that I was the young engineer of the Lake Shore
Railroad, till the sharp snap of the bell brought me to my senses, and
assured me that Higgins was not so fascinated as I was.
I was a minute behind time, and I let on the steam to make it up. I was
obliged to turn my back on the beautiful being in the car, and look out
for “breakers ahead” through the door and windows in the end of the
engine-room; but I had the pleasing satisfaction of thinking that in
running backwards from Spangleport I should face the other way.
What a fool I was! Of course I was. A young man always has a time to
be a fool, just as he has to take the measles, though he seldom has it
so young as I did. I did not know who the young lady was, and I did
not crave any other privilege than that of simply looking at her, just
as I should at a pretty picture. If she had fallen overboard, I should
certainly have jumped in after her. If she had been in the claws of a
lion, I should certainly have smitten the lion. If she had been in the
upper story of a house on fire, I should certainly have run the risk
of being singed for her sake. But she did not fall overboard, or into
the claws of a lion, and she was not in a burning house; and, provoking
as it was, I could not do anything for her, except turn my back to
her,--and I was not sure that this was not the most agreeable service I
could render her,--and run the dummy at its highest speed.
I could not help seeing the beautiful young lady even through the
back of my head; and I am sorry to say that I forgot to look at my
watch, when we passed Ruggles’s barn and the Grass Brook bridge,
as I had intended; and at a quarter past twelve the dummy sizzled
into Spangleport, shivering like an over-driven horse. I had the
self-possession, however, to stop her when she got there; but I have
since wondered that, under the circumstances, I did not run her into
the lake, or over the hill to Grass Springs. I had made the distance in
just fourteen minutes.
The passengers got out of the car, and for a time I lost sight of
the elegant young lady. Higgins came round to me, and declared that
we had made a “bully trip.” I was entirely of his opinion; but I was
not willing to confess that a certain absentmindedness had induced
me to run the machine so as to gain five minutes, and make up one.
The conductor left me, and I fancied that he had gone to find the
interesting person who had fascinated me, and with whom he seemed to be
acquainted.
“Will you allow me to get in there and see the machinery?” said a
silvery voice, while I was rubbing up the works.
I turned, and my face felt as though all the steam in the boiler had
been discharged upon it when I discovered that the speaker was no other
than the bewitching being who was uppermost in my thoughts.
“Certainly,” I replied, leaping to the ground, and endeavoring to
imitate the polite gyrations of the gentlemanly conductor.
“Thank you, Mr. Wolf,” added she, with the sweetest of smiles.
Mr. Wolf! Involuntarily my head went up, and I felt prouder of the
handle to my name then when the mighty major himself had applied it.
“I’m afraid you will find the engine-room a very dirty and greasy
place,” I had the courage to suggest, flustered as I was by having the
beautiful girl speak to me--actually speak to me!
“Oh, never mind! I have on my old clothes.”
If these were her old clothes, I wondered what her best were.
“I suppose you don’t know me, Mr. Wolf; but I have heard a great deal
about the young engineer, and I assure you I am delighted to see you,”
she added, with a kind of roguish look, which made me feel just as
though I was “going up.” “I am Grace Toppleton.”
The daughter of the major! I had heard what a pretty, gentle, amiable
girl she was, and I was positively sure that the reports did not belie
her.
“I have often heard of you, though I never had the pleasure of seeing
you before,” I replied, as gallantly as my flustered state of mind
would permit.
Still imitating the gentlemanly conductor, I took her gloved hand, and
attempted to help her up the high step of the engine-room. I felt, at
this particular moment, just as though I was in the seventh heaven. As
the elegant young lady was about to step up, a rude grasp was laid on
my shoulder; so rude that Miss Grace lost her foothold on the step, and
was thrown back upon the ground.
Turning round, I discovered that my rough assailant was Captain
Synders, the constable of Centreport. He was attended by Colonel
Wimpleton and the skipper of the canal boat which had been blown up. To
my astonishment, Miss Grace leaped upon the dummy without my help, and
I was held back by the savage grasp of the officer. My blissful dream
had suddenly been disturbed, and I was mad. The envious Centreporters
had chosen the moment of my greatest joy to pounce upon me.
[Illustration: THE VISITORS FROM CENTREPORT.--Page 226.]