gets the other child,"
cries the old man, rushing out of the saloon with a little
three-year-old girl in his arms, while the sheriff rushed in. Standing
behind the old man, I beckoned to the conductor, who knew me, to "_go
on_," and in five minutes we were across the Massachusetts line, and I
was in the saloon. With his hand on her child, the sheriff was urging
the mother to let go her hold. "Hold on to your baby," I cried, "he
has no right to take it from you, and is liable to fine and
imprisonment for attempting it. Tell me, Mr. C----, are you helping
the other party as a favor, or in your official capacity? In the
latter case you might have taken her child in Vermont, but we are in
Massachusetts now, quite out of your sheriff's beat." "The grandfather
made legal custodian by the father, was he? That would do in Vermont,
sir, but under the recent decision of a Massachusetts Court, given in
a case like this, _only the father_ can take the child from its
mother, and in attempting it you have made yourselves liable to fine
and imprisonment." Thus the "sheriffalty" was extinguished, and mother
and child took their seat beside me in the car.

Meantime the conductor had made the old gentleman understand that they
could get off at the next station, where they might take the "up
train," and get back to their "team" on the Vermont side of the
"line." As they could get no carriage at the bare little station, and
with the encumbrance of the child, could not foot it six miles in the
cold and snow, they must wait some three or four hours for the train,
which suggested the possibility of a rescue. I could not stop over a
train, but I could take the baby along with me, if some one could be
found--The conductor calls. The car stops. As the child robbers step
out (the little girl, clutched in the old grandfather's arms) 'mid the
frantic cries of the mother and the execrations of the passengers, two
middle-aged gentlemen of fine matter-of-fact presence, entered. I at
once met their questioning faces with a hurried statement of facts,
and the need of some intelligent, humane gentleman to aid the young
mother in the recovery of her little girl. Having spoken together
aside, the younger man introduced "Dr. B----, who lives in the next
town, where papers can be made out, and a sheriff be sent back to
bring the men and child; the lady can go with the doctor, and the baby
with Mrs. Nichols. I would stop, but I must be in my seat in the
Legi