le_ tenders?"

"Oh, lots of 'em," replied John, "quite a train of 'em; four livin' an'
three gone dead. The last was coupled on only a short time ago. You'll
excuse me now, ma'am," he added, pulling out and consulting the
ponderous chronometer with which the company supplied him, "I must go
now, havin' to take charge o' the 6:30 p.m. train,--it ain't my usual
train, but I'm obleeged to take it to-night owin' to one of our drivers
havin' come by an accident. Evenin', ma'am."

John bowed, and retired so promptly that poor Mrs Tipps had no time to
make further inquiry into the accident referred to--at the very mention
of which her former alarm came back in full force. However, she wisely
got the better of her own anxieties by throwing herself into those of
others. Putting on her bonnet she sallied forth on her errand of mercy.

Meanwhile John Marrot proceeded to the engine-shed to prepare his iron
horse for action. Here he found that his fireman, Will Garvie, and his
cleaner, had been attending faithfully to their duty. The huge
locomotive, which looked all the more gigantic for being under cover,
was already quivering with that tremendous energy--that artificial
life--which rendered it at once so useful and so powerful a servant of
man. Its brasses shone with golden lustre, its iron rods and bars,
cranks and pistons glittered with silvery sheen, and its heavier parts
and body were gay with a new coat of green paint. Every nut and screw
and lever and joint had been screwed up, and oiled, examined, tested,
and otherwise attended to, while the oblong pit over which it stood when
in the shed--and into which its ashes were periodically emptied--glowed
with the light of its intense furnace. Ever and anon a little puff
issued from its safety-valve, proving to John Marrot that there was life
within his fiery steed sufficient to have blown the shed to wreck with
all its brother engines, of which there were at the time two or three
dozen standing--some disgorging their fire and water after a journey,
and preparing to rest for the night; some letting off steam with a
fiendish yell unbearably prolonged; others undergoing trifling repairs
preparatory to starting next day, and a few, like that of our
engine-driver, ready for instant action and snorting with impatience
like war-horses "scenting the battle from afar." The begrimed warriors,
whose destiny it was to ride these iron chargers, were also variously
circumstanced.