BITS OF OAK BARK. 35 



This they were getting up on the timber-carriage, and 

 Luke dismounted and assisted. While it was on the 

 timber-carriage, he said, as it was the last, they could 

 take it along to the wharf. The farmer had come down 

 to watch how the work got on, and with him was his 

 little boy, a child of five or six. When the boy saw the 

 great tree fixed, he cried to be mounted on it for a ride, 

 but as it was so rough they persuaded him to ride on 

 one of the horses instead. As they all approached the 

 gate at the level crossing, a white gate with the words 

 in long black letters, " To be kept Locked," they 

 heard the roar of the morning express and stayed for 

 it to go by. So soon as the train had passed, the gate 

 was opened and the horses began to drag the carriage 

 across. As they strained at the heavyweight, the boy 

 found the motion uncomfortable and cried out, and 

 Luke, always kind-hearted, went and held him on. 

 Whether it was the shouting at the team, the cracking 

 of the whip, the rumbling of the wheels, or what, 

 was never known ; but suddenly the farmer, who had 

 crossed the rail, screamed, " The goods ! " Round the 

 curve by the copse, and till then hidden by it, swept 

 a goods train, scarce thirty yards away. Luke might 

 have saved himself, but the boy ! He snatched the 

 child from the horse, hurled him — literally hurled him 

 — into the father's arms, and in the instant was a 

 shapeless mass. The scene is too dreadful for further 

 description. This miserable accident happened, as the 

 driver of the goods train afterwards stated, at exactly 

 eight minutes past eleven o'clock. 



It was precisely at that time that Luke's lady, 

 dreaming among the cowslips, heard the noise of hoofs. 



