together as best they might and started toward the railroad for their
return. Even as they did so there appeared upon the northern horizon
a wreath of smoke rising above the forest. There was the far-off
sound of a whistle, deadened by the heavy intervening vegetation; and
presently, there puffed into view one of the railroad trains still
new upon this region. Iconoclastic, modern, strenuous, it wabbled
unevenly over the new-laid rails up to the station-house, where it
paused for a few moments ere it resumed its wheezing way to the
southward. The two visitors at the Big House gazed at it open-mouthed
for a time, until all at once her former thought crossed the woman's
mind. She turned upon her husband.

"Thah it goes! Thah it goes!" she cried. "Right on straight to ouah
house! It kain't miss it! An' little Sim, he's sho' to be playin' out
thah on the track. Oh, he's daid right this minute, he sho'ly is!"

Her speech exercised a certain force upon Jim Bowles. He stepped on
the faster, tripped upon a clod and stumbled, spilling half the milk
from the pail.

"Thah, now!" said he. "Thah hit goes ag'in. Done spilt the melk.
Well, hit's too far back to the house now fer mo'. But, now, mebbe
Sim wasn't playin' on the track."

"Mebbe he wasn't!" said Sarah Ann, scornfully. "Why, _o' co'se_ he
was."

"Well, if he was," said Jim Bowles, philosophically, "why, Sar' Ann,
from whut I done notice about this yeah railroad train, why--it's
_too late_, now."