“Thank God! Thank God!” I cried; and they were not idle words that I uttered, for it seemed to me that the Good Father had interposed to save me from what I should have remembered with horror all the rest of my life. I could not but regard it as an interposition of Providence in my favor, rather than the child’s; but in the mother’s favor rather than that of either of us, for she would have been the greatest sufferer. I am sure this incident had a powerful influence upon me, not for the moment, or the day only, but for all the rest of my life. It has kept my eyes open when I was disposed to close them; it has decided the question of running a risk when nothing else seemed to restrain me; it taught me to regard human life as too sacred to be trifled with. I saw the fond mother clasp her child, and with the reaction came the thought that I was running the Lightning Express train; that the reputation of Middleport depended upon the time I should make. “Jump on, Tom!” I called to my friend, as he paused for a moment to gaze at the mother and her rescued child. “That was a narrow squeak!” said he; and the whole face of the generous fellow expanded into one smile of satisfaction. “It was, indeed, Tom,” I replied, as I let on the steam, and whistled to take off the brakes. “It was a merciful providence that you were on the engine with me. If you had not been, the child would have been dead at this instant.” “I am glad I was here, then. I think that woman will keep her child in the house after this,” replied he. I crowded on the steam again, and once more the train flew like the wind along the lake shore. All the time I was thinking of that little child; of the anguish that would have filled that cottage by the lake, at this moment, if Tom Walton had not happened to be on the engine with me. I could have done no more than I did do, and though the train was on the very point of stopping, there was still momentum enough left in it to have crushed the little one to death. I was grateful to God as I had never been before for sparing me such a calamity. In the exhilaration of the moment I urged forward the locomotive till I saw the steamer which was waiting to convey the passengers across the river. I looked at my gold watch, thought of Grace Toppleton, as I always did when I glanced at its face, and almost forgot why I had taken it from my pocket in thinking of the expression of her beautiful face when I should relate to her the thrilling incident which had just occurred. I was on time; I was ahead of time, for I had driven the engine at a furious speed. But I had worked carefully; I had favored it on the curves, and I felt as safe myself as if I had been in my father’s house.