r the station was a little distance back.

Miss Catherine waited in great anxiety; she could not afford to waste
a minute. She would have to cross an impossible culvert in going
around the train either way. She saw some passengers or brakemen
walking about on the other side, and with great heroism mounted the
high step of the platform with the full intention of going down the
other side, when, to her horror, the train suddenly moved. She
screamed, "Stop! stop!" but nobody saw her, and nobody heard her; and
off she went, cream-pitcher and all, without a bit of a bonnet. It was
simply awful.

The car behind her was the smoking-car, and the one on which she stood
happened to be the Pullman. She was dizzy, and did not dare to stay
where she was; so she opened the door and went in. There was a young
lady standing in the passage-way, getting a drink of water for some
one in a dainty little tumbler; and she looked over her shoulder,
thinking Miss Spring was the conductor, to whom she wished to speak;
and she smiled, for who could help it?

"I'm carried off," said poor Aunt Catherine hysterically. "I had
company come to tea unexpectedly, and I was all out of cream, and I
went out to Mrs. Hilton's, and I was in a great hurry to get back, and
there seemed no sign in the world of the cars starting. I wish we
never had sold our land for the track! Oh! what shall I do? I'm a mile
from home already; they'll be frightened to death, and I wanted to
have supper early for them, so they could start for home; it's a long
ride. And the biscuit ought to be eaten hot. Dear me! they'll be so
worried!"

"I'm very sorry, indeed," said the young lady, who was quivering with
laughter in spite of her heartfelt sympathy for such a calamity as
this. "I suppose you will have to go on to the next station; is it
very far?"

"Half an hour," said Miss Spring despairingly; "and the down train
doesn't get into Brookton until seven; and I haven't a cent of money
with me, either. I shall be crazy! I don't see why I didn't get off;
but it took all my wits away the minute I found I was going."

"I'm so glad you didn't try to get off," said the girl gravely: "you
might have been terribly hurt. Won't you come into the compartment
just here with my aunt and me? She is an invalid, and we are all by
ourselves; you need not see any one else. Let me take your pitcher."
And Miss Spring, glad to find so kind a friend in such an emergency,
followed her.

There