Under The Train.

years ago on the — ¦ Road . I leaned out of the window to examine the place more thoroughly , and ivas going to turn to Tom to enquire if Mrs . Shafer lived there still , when I happened to glance ahead , and I declare to the Lord , Will , my

heart almost jumped into my month , for there , just about forty yards in front of the engine , was a little child . I looked at it horror-stricken for about tivo seconds before it occurred to me what to do , and then I sprang to the whistle and Mowed " doivn

breaks " so loud and shrill that I wonder it did not put them clown . by its own vehemence . -I tried to stop the engine as well as I could , but it was difficult work , for it was doivn grade , and it would not do to pitch such a train as that off the track , down a steep embankment ten miles from

any assistance . Tom saAV what was the matter , and waived his hands with desperate energy for Mm to step off the track , while I fairly shrieked in my dreadful anxiety , as the engine each second rolled so much nearer the devoted childbut all without avail

, , for the poor little innocent seemed fairly possessed ivith admiration he felt for the ponderous machine , and clapped his hands and laughed with glee as the sunlight flashed from the bright reflector into his face . We were now so near to him that

we could see his bri ght blue eyes and prettyyellow hair waving in the wind , and just Avhen it was almost too late , he seemed to be frightened at his danger , and turned to run . He had scarcely run ten steps when he stumbled and fell , and the engine passed over Mm .

For one minute everything swam before my sight , and then I sprang to the ground , giving my ankle a painful wrench as I struck . I crawled to the side of the track expecting to see his poor little body ground to a sickening mass of blood and bones ,

when what ivas my astonishment , indeed I may almost say flight , to hear him say as he lifted up his head , " Me tomming . " I had scarcely time to grasp out , "keep your head down , darling , " before another car swept over him . Fortunatelfor the

y child , they had been repairing the road a few days before , and had not filled in yet , and when he stumbled he rolled in between two of the sleepers . It seemed to me it was years while I crouched down beside that track with the

cars rolling over him , expecting every minute to have Ms brains spattered over my face . More than fifty times I said , coaxingly , " Just keep your head doivn a little longer , they Avill soon all be over , " though my own heart sank as I looked

back and saw the long line still sweeping round the curve . Several times lie did not put down his head quickly enough , and he got a bump on it as the cars passed over him . I almost beggared myself by my promises to himand only at last succeeded in

keep-, ing him still by the promise of a hobbyhorse with " Avockers" on it , as he himself expressely stipulated in his shrill little voice even amidst all the rumble and roar of that everlasting train . Wellat last the long torment Avas over

, , and I craivled forward and picked the child up out ot the hole , for now that it was all over he seemed to realize in a measure the danger he had been in , and lay i \\ a kind

of stupor , unable to move . Just at this moment his mother came to the gate , and seeing the pretty head of the child on my arm immediately surmised he must he dead , aud fell to the ground as if she had been shot . Wellthere I was in a pretty fixlady in

, , a faint , child in my arms , and my ankle sprained . Fortunately for me , before I lost my senses entirely , Tom succeeded in stopping the train , and came running back to see if he could be of any service . He soon put matters right by throwing

some water in her face and bringing her to , and then putting the child in her arms , assisted me to the house . Mrs . Shafer , as soon as she found out her little Charlie was all right , and had leisure to give me a little

attentionre-, cognized me at once in spite of the coal dust , and then nothing in the house ivas too good for me . Her brother and his wife AVIIO lived in the same house ivith them

were pressed into the service at once , the surgeon was sent for , and she herself was only too anxious to be useful . Tom took the engine to the station safely , and reported the affair , so that was all right , and I had nothing further to do than to get well as soon as possible . It was

a bad sprain , though ., and took several months to heal , but long before that time I had settled the engine-house question in my own mind , and just before I left I proposed , and it is almost needless to say ivas