g pin in the other, his eye on an engine and
train of cars only a rod or two away, advancing to pick up the single
car. At the same moment Peter caught sight of little Phil, kneeling
under the car at the other end.

Peter shouted, but the brakeman was absorbed in his own task, which
required close attention in order to assure his own safety. The
engineer on the cab, at the other end of the train, saw an old Negro
excitedly gesticulating, and pulled a lever mechanically, but too late
to stop the momentum of the train, which was not equipped with air
brakes, even if these would have proved effective to stop it in so
short a distance.

Just before the two cars came together, Peter threw himself forward to
seize the child. As he did so, the cat sprang from the truck bar; the
old man stumbled over the cat, and fell across the rail. The car moved
only a few feet, but quite far enough to work injury.

A dozen people, including the train crew, quickly gathered. Willing
hands drew them out and laid them upon the grass under the spreading
elm at the corner of the street. A judge, a merchant and a Negro
labourer lifted old Peter's body as tenderly as though it had been
that of a beautiful woman. The colonel, somewhat uneasy, he scarcely
knew why, had started to limp painfully toward the corner, when he was
met by a messenger who informed him of the accident. Forgetting his
pain, he hurried to the scene, only to find his heart's delight lying
pale, bleeding and unconscious, beside the old Negro who had
sacrificed his life to save him.

A doctor, who had been hastily summoned, pronounced Peter dead. Phil
showed no superficial injury, save a cut upon the head, from which the
bleeding was soon stanched. A Negro's strong arms bore the child to
the house, while the bystanders remained about Peter's body until the
arrival of Major McLean, recently elected coroner, who had been
promptly notified of the accident. Within a few minutes after the
officer's appearance, a jury was summoned from among the bystanders,
the evidence of the trainmen and several other witnesses was taken,
and a verdict of accidental death rendered. There was no suggestion of
blame attaching to any one; it had been an accident, pure and simple,
which ordinary and reasonable prudence could not have foreseen.

By the colonel's command, the body of his old servant was then
conveyed to the house and laid out in the front parlour. Every honour,
every token of respect