Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy | Page 5

and lived in the country, there were three of us
boys who used to go very frequently to a small village about a mile
from our homes. To reach this village it was necessary to cross a
narrow river, and there was a toll-bridge for that purpose. The toll for
every foot-passenger who went over this bridge was one cent. Now,
this does not seem like a very high charge, but, at that time, we very
often thought that we would much rather keep our pennies to spend in
the village than to pay them to the old man who took toll on the bridge.

But it was often necessary for us to cross the river, and to do so, and
save our money at the same time, we used to adopt a very hazardous
expedient.
At a short distance below the toll-bridge there was a railroad-bridge,
which you cannot see in the picture. This bridge was not intended for
anything but railroad trains; it was very high above the water, it was
very long, and it was not floored. When any one stood on the cross-ties
which supported the rails, he could look right down into the water far
below him. For the convenience of the railroad-men and others who
sometimes were obliged to go on the bridge, there was a single line of
boards placed over the ties at one side of the track, and there was a
slight hand-rail put up at that side of the bridge.
To save our pennies we used to cross this bridge, and every time we did
so we risked our lives.
We were careful, however, not to go on the bridge at times when a train
might be expected to cross it, for when the cars passed us, we had much
rather be on solid ground. But one day, when we had forgotten the hour;
or a train was behind, or ahead of time; or an extra train was on the
road--we were crossing this railroad bridge, and had just about reached
the middle of it, when we heard the whistle of a locomotive! Looking
up quickly, we saw a train, not a quarter of a mile away, which was
coming towards us at full speed. We stood paralyzed for a moment. We
did not know what to do. In a minute, or less, the train would be on the
bridge and we had not, or thought we had not, time to get off of it,
whether we went forward or backward.
But we could not stand on that narrow path of boards while the train
was passing. The cars would almost touch us. What could we do? I
believe that if we had had time, we would have climbed down on the
trestle-work below the bridge, and so let the train pass over us. But
whatever could be done must be done instantly, and we could think of
nothing better than to get outside of the railing and hold on as well as
we could. In this position we would, at any rate, be far enough from the
cars to prevent them from touching us. So out we got, and stood on the
ends of the timbers, holding fast to the slender hand-rail. And on came

the train! When the locomotive first touched the bridge we could feel
the shock, and as it came rattling and grinding over the rails towards
us--coming right on to us, as it seemed--our faces turned pale, you may
well believe.
But the locomotive did not run off the track just at that exact spot
where we were standing--a catastrophe which, I believe, in the bottom
of our hearts, every one of us feared. It passed on, and the train came
thundering after it. How dreadfully close those cars did come to us!
How that bridge did shake and tremble in every timber; and how we
trembled for fear we should be shaken off into the river so far below us!
And what an enormously long train it was! I suppose that it took, really,
but a very short time to pass, but it seemed to us as if there was no end
to it at all, and as if it would never, never get entirely over that bridge!
But it did cross at last, and went rumbling away into the distance.
Then we three, almost too much frightened to speak to each other, crept
under the rail and hurried over the bridge.
All that anxiety, that fright, that actual misery of mind, and positive
danger of body, to save one cent apiece!
But we never saved any more money in that way. When we crossed the
river after that, we went over the toll-bridge, and we paid our pennies,
like other sensible people.
Had it been