Despite all this the Silver Swan was not doing as well as she ought.  She was barely keeping her course at the usual speed.

Jockey glanced to the boiler.  The index finger pointed to the gauge at 122 degrees.  Three more degrees was all she could stand.  Rock was doing his duty.  The track was straight and level.  Still the Swan showed no disposition to gain the twenty minutes coveted time.

The old engineer shook his grizzled head and the furrows deepened on his careworn visage.

“The fates are against us to-night,” he muttered.  “We can never make Wood’s Hollow in time to escape the down express.  That is always on time.”

Just then the little gong over his head sounded, in response to the conductor’s pull upon the cord.

Jockey quickly answered this with a blast from the whistle, which the other would understand to mean that the engine was already crowded to her utmost.

The old engineer was losing his temper by this time, and with his hand still on the lever he leaned forward to peer into the gloom, parting before the dull rays of the headlight, as if to let them pass.

A drizzling rain was yet falling, but he did not notice this, for at his first glance a cry of horror left his lips, and he staggered back, exclaiming: 

“It is coming!  Someone has blundered!”

Rock started forward with surprise, and he uttered a cry of terror as he saw the gleam of a headlight and the shadowy outlines of an engine and train, less than a rod in front of them.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE ORIGIN OF DOLLS.

It is a safe assertion to make that every girl has at some time or other played with dolls; in fact, it is almost impossible to imagine a girl without a doll.  Of course, the older ones have outgrown their dolls, and only keep the old favorites as souvenirs of childish days and pretty playthings, and it is quite likely that they would be puzzled to explain why they call the little image a “doll,” and not, as the French do, a “puppet,” or, with the Italians, a “bambino,” or baby.

What is the meaning of the word “doll?” To explain, it is necessary to go back to the Middle Ages, when it was the fashion all over the Christian world for mothers to give their little children the name of a patron saint.  Some saints were more popular than others, and St. Dorothea was at one period more popular than all.

Dorothea, or Dorothy, as the English have it, means a “gift from God.”  But Dorothea or Dorothy is much too long a name for a little, toddling baby, and so it was shortened to Dolly and Doll, and from giving the babies a nickname it was an easy step to give the name to the little images of which the babies were so fond.

ANECDOTES THAT AMUSE.