690 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1879, 
for aday. (Good souls the Cowles!) But when we 
had got on six miles, met a wagon from Marion, the 
men in which proposed an exchange, which we (for 
the Cowles’s sake) gladly consented to. Were to cross 
the Iron Mountain that day, if time held out (which it 
did), and stop at a McCarthy’s at the foot, twelve 
miles from Marion. Reaching the place just at dusk, 
the driver insisted that this nice house was not the 
place, but a mile or two farther on. So we tired 
people drove on by moonlight, three miles further, to 
find he was mistaken, and no lodgings to be had, ex- 
cept possibly a mile further. Came to a house, 
routed a man and wife out of bed, found a great fire 
still on the hearth, no decent chance to sleep. Con- 
cluded the only way then was to push on the eight 
miles more, so as to get the train the next morning at 
6.35. Got with difficulty a little corn for the horses, 
brought out Mrs. Gray’s tea-kettle, made tea, ate the 
remains of our dinner, and thus refreshed, jogged on; 
reached Marion at one A. M., slept till half past five, 
rose, took train at 6.50. And Mrs. Gray still lives! 
Were waiting hungrily for our breakfast at Wyeth- 
ville, when, three miles from it, a slight double thud, 
a down-brake signal, the last breath of the engine, a 
stop. To our vast surprise, on looking out, engine, 
and three cars, and first section of high bridge were 
missing, and were débris in the abyss. No such acci- 
dent could have been managed with less shock to the 
nerves. And as to the result, had it been after break- 
fast and passengers smoking in the second-class car, 
there would have been a greater fatality (glad to say, 
I don’t smoke)... . 
There were weak ladies and hungry and sick chil- 
dren on board. I clambered down the embankment 
