A STIRRING STORY.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 August 1919, Page 2

A STIRRING STORY.

An imaginative writer in a contemporary states :—The Helensville expresswas hurtling to her destination. Many passengers were asleep. Some, with long ' grey beards, were playing cards. with worn-out pasteboards that had been new when the journey started. A man was carefully tending a kauri tree, the seed of which he had planted in a flower-plot when he left Auckland. A gentleman who had secured a parcel of land with an L.I.P. title, moaned that it would expire before he got to Helensville. A lady■'"■*walked through the car and brought the incredible news that the war was over, and a High School girl volunteered the information that Julius Caesar had just died. That's fiction. Here's the other side. The engine gave a powerful whistle and the sleepers awoke. A man looked at his watch. "Heavens !" he exclaimed, " she's going.to. get in on time." " Rot!" remarked a friend, " your watch must be wrong.". But a comparison of watches showed that he was right. The passep? gers were delighted, and a manofsome initiative suggested a PreseiAftii the engine driver, and a speech orSKm, lation at Helensville, A good sum was raised as the hat was passed round. On % arrival at Helensville a large deputation interviewed the driver, who looked over the plate of his cab, wiped his forehead With a bit of oily waste, expectorated thoughtfully on the platform, and said ♦' Wot's all this ?" "Mr driver," said the ' gifted spokesman, ''for your ekill and heroism there can be no V.O. Your in-V trepid conduct, meriting as it does the ' highest honour the State can award, might be suitably rewarded with a P.13.Q, ' pr a first-class Q.B,®. We as citizens, however, desire to reward your genius with this small cash token of bur admiration and esteem"—and handed up the cash. « Wot's it all about ?" asked the ! engineman, "wot's it for ?" " For bringing the train in to time !" they chorussed, "This ain't to-day's train," said the driver, " it's yesterday's."