Miss Dividends: A NovelGunter, Archibald Clavering
General
Miss Dividends: A Novel
Gunter, Archibald Clavering
Latter Day Saints -- Fiction
A minute after, Erma and Harry are on the platform and the man of the
throttle-valve comes to them, carrying his little daughter, who looks
pale, and has hungry eyes. Seeing her bounty, the engineer cries, "God
bless you, miss." Then he mutters, "You'll rob yourself."
"Oh, I've more left," answers Miss Travenion; "besides, she needs it,"
for the child has already gone to work ravenously on the fruit tarts.
"God bless you, just the same," cries the engineer. "Thank the lady,
Susie."
But Susie, looking at her benefactress, forgets gratitude in admiration,
and babbles, "Beau'ful, beau'ful," extending a fruity hand and putting
up two lips embellished with jam.
"Don't, she'll spoil your dress," says the father. But Erma has her
already in her arms, giving the little one a kiss, and playing with her
and doing some small things to make her happy.
And doing small things for the baby does great things for herself,
though she does not know it, for it gains the engineer's heart.
The man wipes a grimy eye with a more grimy sleeve, and mutters, "I was
afraid my little one would get sick from starving, and she's all that's
left me of her mother, who's buried in Green River--God bless your kind
heart and beautiful face, miss!" and so going away, spreads the news of
the beautiful girl's bounty through the train.
But this brings requests from other hungry ones to Miss Travenion, who
has a little that they will eat--if she will give it them.
Consequently, about five in the afternoon Lawrence, who does not know
of this raid on his beloved's commissariat, and is in the smoking-car
pondering over the problem whether the knowledge of the awful death to
which Kruger had doomed and from which he had rescued her father, will
not make Erma too anxious and too nervous about Ralph Travenion's
further fate, finds himself disturbed by Mr. Powers.
The boy comes hurriedly to him and says: "She ain't got nothin' to eat,
and she's hungry."
"What do you mean?" cries Harry. "Didn't you say that you had
provisioned her for two days?"
"Yes! but she's given it all away to the women in the way-cars."
"No relief train yet?"
"No, an' I don't see any chance of one."
"Very well," remarks Lawrence, putting on his overcoat, "I'll see what I
can do."
He steps out of the car, and the best he can think of is to tramp to the
telegraph station, and see if there is anything left there. It is over a
mile and a half, but a beaten track has been pretty well made in the
snow by the brakemen and conductor on some of their visits to that
point, so he gets there in a little over half an hour.
Here, the conductor is talking to the telegraph operator, and they seem
to be excited over something.
"What's the matter?" asks Harry.
"Nothing, only the line's down between here and Evanston!" says the
operator. "It was working twenty minutes ago, but I can't get the
Evanston or any other Western office now."
"What was the last news from there?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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