The Ghost That Jim Saw

" Why, as to that," said the engineer, " ühosts ain't thinga we are apt to fear, Spirits don't fooi with levers' much And throttlo ralves don't take to suoh ; Andasfor Jim - What happened to him Wa ono half fact and t'other half whim ! Eunning onc night on the line, he saw A house - us plain as the moral law - Just by the moonlit bank, and thence Carao a diunken mau with no more senso Than to drop on the rail, Flat as a flail, As Jim drove by with the midnight mail. Down went the patents. Ste&m reveraed, Too late ! for thero carne a thud,' Jim cursed, As his flreman, there in the cab with him, Kinder stared in the face of Jim, And says, " What now?" Says Jim, ' What now ? I've just run over a man - that's how '■" The fireman stared at Jim. They ran Back, but tbey never found house nor man,- Nary a shadow within a mile, Jim turned pale, but he tned to smile- Tlien on he tore, Ten mile or more, In quicker time than he'd made afore. Would you believe it !- the vcry noit nlght Up rose that house in the moonlight white ; Out comes the chap and drops as befoie, Down {,'oeí the brakes, and the rest encoré- - And so in fact, Each night that act Occurred, till íolks swore Jim was cracked. Humph ! Let me see ; It's a year now, most, That I met Jim east and saya, 'Hort your ghost?' ■ fm 4-r s M T w J ' Gone,' says Jim ; ' and more. U's plain That ghost don't trouble me again-: I theught I shook That ghost when I took A place on an eastern line - but look : What should I meet the iirst trip out, But that very house that we talked about, And the self-same man! "Well," says I, "I guess [t's timo to stop thiá yer foolishness." So I cramuied on steam, When there carne a scream From mv fireman - and it broke my dream - ' You've killed somebody !"' Says I, " Xot muchl I'vo been thar otten and thar ain't no such, Aiid now 111 prove it." Back we ran, And - dam my skin ! -but thar was a man On the rail, dead, Smashed in the head - " Xow I cali that meanness !" That's all Jim said." _ _ _ - .