Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1895 — TOHNNY AND JENNY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TOHNNY AND JENNY.

IHE BRAKEMAN'S STORY OP ONE NEW YEAR'S EVE. Ct Was To’.d in the Caboose of a Cattle Train Between Stations—What fams of Holding the Front” of No, 0 in a Storm of Sleet.

A Fad Romance. G— T was so quiet'outr''\ long freight train would come to a - !.Atandstill_with an_ awkward- jerk, could almdst hear f they fell. The soft c °ul fire spluttered fitfully in the oldMynS stove. Without knowing precisely ifflpTXrr; Why, we sat mostly in silence. We were / ?*-W“l6ur hours behind —time;

X>l— —— Ift . " SittTngTTrHl e re d ea boose, rumjbling alonF/hrough a blind fog of snow with a flying express at our heels gave ah uncanny sensation. —The drummer who had boarded the train at Dubuque sa t morosely-on a pile of grips. A couple of shippers anxiously discussed the prospects for getting their stock to market. At the entrance of Joe. the brakeman, however, the glum little party seemed to thaw.’ He swung down off the roof in a cheery sort of fashion. “Joe," said one of the shippers, “ba we going to reach Chicago in time for • New Year’s dinner?” “Isn’t this good enough for you to live , In? How’d you like to be out braking to-night?” “ 'Tain’t no snap, that’s a fact." “No, you bet it ain’t,” said Joe, decisively. “But this ain't a patching to what it is sometimes. Somehow to-night reminds me of-the night afore New Year’s two years ago. That'was when we brought Johnny Haines home. G uess you must 'a known’Johnny,” he added, turning to tlie skipper. “Nope, Ileard of hint. Go on, Jost What Was tJie story?!' v “Not much of a one,” Joe replied deprecatingly, “Just a brakeman’s yarn. The first day I ever saw Johnny Haines I thought he was about the handsomest lad I ever sot eyes" on! He'fame up on No. 6 on her first trip, and there wasn't a girl along the road'that hadn't a smile for |iim as he w.cnt by. One of .the fellows told us Johnny belonged to family, but got kicked out for some reason or other.” * c Joe stopped, pulled vigorously at his pipe for a few minutes, and finally the rather husky voice went on: “L’p. the road not very far from hero there is a pretty little farm and right at the corner of it was a water tank. It -happened that on this farm there was a dark-eyed little girl who was the idol of al] the boys along jhe road. To woo was to win with Johnny, and regular as the train passed the farm Jenny was always there to meet him. Things ran njong through the summer and fall, and we found out that Johnny hud. been promised a raise, andalongabout tlnrhoiidays he was- going to get married. I used to notice, though, that every once in a while ItlTWiWwould cloud np, as if he was thinking of something that hurt him. “We had a big train that New Year’s— Eve, and with the snow, and sleet and the cold it gave us no end of trouble. She batted three or four times,, and it was dangerous setting brakes or getting -down to make couplings. Several Aimcs We ttrought we "Were stalled in -drrfts.—We wanted to get through tp Chi--eagOr-for the next-day—was New Year's, and all hands had a day off. Johnny and I fought like beavers against the cold. I was more anxious about him than myself, and was warning him how a sudden fling might send a man flying down under the wheels, when the whistle sound* ed down brakes, Johnny ran ahead, ths car lops being slippery as 'glass. 116oked up, and through the snow and the dark I recognized the water tank. Jyst at that moment the train gave a frightful jerk, and I saw the engine go rearing in the air, a lantern swing wildly and go down? I wont flat on the ear and hung there for dear life. We stopped in ten or twenty yards and 1 swung off the car like mad. .—:—

“Something me feel that Johnny had gone under >lO wheels, and when I crawled ahead a few cars there I found him, lying all white and still. We picked him up and started to carry him to the house—where Jenny lived. I saw that the wheels bpd gone pver both legs. A? white little face catne to the door arid looked at us a moment, but Jenny, didn't faint or cry. We just carried him in and put him on the bed and she took charge of him. One of the boys rode over to get a doctor. Johnny lay very quiet, until the doctor’s examination was finished, and then pulling Jenny’s hand weakly, he said in a husky voice, ‘Littje girl, I want to go home.’ And that hb insisted on all the rest of the night. We decided to put

him on board the morning express. All Jenny would tell us was that his father jived lß~Ciiicinnati. But she gave th* conductor an address'for a wire. We didn.t think that he would f kw»t-4he-jeur»-ney, and about half way down he sudden- • ly clutched Jenny's hand hard. The little.girl threw herself upon him sobbing as if her heart would break. Poor John*. - W was grime.” “ Joo paused a moment and looked into hie fire. , “Well,” he said, “to cut it short, when we got into Chicago Johnny’s father 'wag there. I led him to wjiere the boy lay, tie looked very hard at the little girl who >at there sobbing, and said, slowly, Ta this—Jenny?’ And then he took her verg quietly In hie arms and kissed her;

“LITTLE GIRL, I WANT TO GO HOME.”