The White Rose of MemphisFalkner, William C. (Clark)
General
The White Rose of Memphis
Falkner, William C. (Clark)
Memphis (Tenn.) -- Fiction
pretty, ’tis true, but the situation was awful. My heart grew sick at
the sight. I noticed Harry getting down on the very front of the iron
frame commonly called the cow-catcher; but what good could he do by
that? The engine was within ten feet of the little girl when I saw the
old engineer turn his face away and throw both hands to his eyes, as if
he were trying to shut out the shocking scene that was about to be
witnessed.
“‘Oh! great God have mercy on us,’ he exclaimed, as he turned away.
“Harry placed his foot on the outer end of the longest bar of iron, then
made a desperate leap forward, seized the child by the arm, and both
went rolling down the steep side of the embankment. He made the leap
when the engine was only about six feet from the child, and he must have
made his calculations very accurately, for he only let one foot strike
the ground between the rails, while the other struck the ground outside
of the rails. The slightest miscalculation or the least mistake, would
have been fatal to him as well as her for whom he made the gallant leap.
At the base of the embankment there was a pond of muddy water, bordered
with briars and broken rocks. Harry and the little girl landed in the
middle of the pond, bruised and bleeding from many wounds. The engine
came to a halt as soon as it struck the bridge, and the engineer leaped
down to where Harry lay in the water and lifted him up in his arms. It
was an affecting sight to see the man of iron nerve weeping like a
child.
“‘My brave little hero,’ he exclaimed, as he pressed Harry’s brow to his
lips, ‘are you hurt?’
“‘Not much sir, I believe, though my leg is broken,’ said Harry.
“Poor fellow! he fainted in the arms of the strong man who carried him
up the embankment and placed him on the train. The little girl had a
severe contusion on her temple, caused by falling against a
sharp-cornered rock at the base of the embankment. She was also placed
on the train, and then it was put in motion, and soon was at the
station, and a surgeon sent for, while the wounded children were removed
to a hotel near the depot. The mother of the little girl (a pale-faced,
delicate little woman of great beauty) swooned and fell to the ground
when she saw the bleeding child in my arms. The father of the child took
her from me.
“‘In Heaven’s name pray tell me what has happened!’ said he, as he took
his daughter from me.
“‘She is not seriously hurt, sir,’ said I, and then I told him what had
occurred.
“Harry had regained consciousness before we reached the station, and
when he saw how Lottie was weeping as she held his head in her lap, he
smiled pleasantly. ‘Don’t be alarmed, Lottie dear, I am not seriously
hurt--just one leg broken, that’s all. Wasn’t it lucky that I happened
to be on the front of that engine? Is the little girl much hurt?’
“‘No, I think not,’ said the conductor, ‘she got a slight cut on the
temple.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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