Cranford

[Illustration: ‘And he shuddered at the recollection.’]

‘Come in—come to my sister at once,—Miss Jenkyns, the rector’s daughter.
Oh, man, man!—say it is not true,’ she cried, as she brought the
affrighted carter, sleeking down his hair, into the drawingroom, where
he stood with his wet boots on the new carpet, and no one regarded it.

‘Please, mum, it is true. I seed it myself,’ and he shuddered at the
recollection. ‘The Captain was a-reading some new book as he was deep
in, a-waiting for the down train; and there was a little lass as wanted
to come to its mammy, and gave its sister the slip, and came toddling
across the line. And he looked up sudden, at the sound of the train
coming, and seed the child, and he darted on the line and cotched it up,
and his foot slipped, and the train came over him in no time. Oh Lord,
Lord! Mum, it’s quite true—and they’ve come over to tell his daughters.
The child’s safe, though, with only a bang on its shoulder, as he threw
it to its mammy. Poor Captain would be glad of that, mum, wouldn’t he?
God bless him!’ The great rough carter puckered up his manly face, and
turned away to hide his tears. I turned to Miss Jenkyns. She looked very