Comments on "Dad."

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1621, 24 April 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

Comments on "Dad."

Two strangers, walking up and down the railway depot to pass time away, were attracted to the locomotive standing on the rails, and as they walked around it one of theni remarked : 'It was one of these fellers that killed my old dad.' 'Is that so ?' replied the other ' Tes, busted him into nine or ten pieces. I never think of it without the tears coming.' He sighed heavily, and then went on— Dad was walking on the track when she busted him. The engineer said he

reimbursed his lever, blowed the whistle, and did all he could to save the old man, who was trotting along with his head down, but nothing could warn him. This 'ere cow-catcher picked him up, tossed him forty feet high, and he turned over seven times and came down in a cornfield.'

' And was he dead ?' asked the other. ' Dead ! Well 1 should say he was ! Every rib was broken, the vertebery waa shivered, his skull was stove, one leg gone, and he was the worst looking old man you ever saw. I shall never forget the day they brought the pieces back into the house. There was mother a-weeping in the corner, sister Julia up stairs, Jim on the bed, and I had to run the funeral business, though I was that near gone that my head swum and I couldn't keep nothing on my stomach but porridge.' It was a sad thing, indeed,' responded the other. ' You bet it was ?' continued the son, ' and the worst of it was the newspapers came out and said that dad was a blamed old fool for walking on the track —them were the very words,' ' They were.' ' Yep, them were the words, and I tell you they struck us bad. Dad might have been reckless,but he was no fool. He had a good heart, and was powerful on poetiyand figures.' He wiped his eyes on the palm of his band, and he and his companion moved away.