Page 210 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

Which winds in mid on;: through the cloven ravd'H,
With glimpses, at times of tlie wildest oi' scenes—
Now passing a bridge seeming fine as a thread,
Now shooting past cliff.-: lhat impend o’er the head,
Now ohmging some black-throated tunnel witkm,
Whose darkness is roused at tlie clatter and din ;
And ran every day with its train, o'er the road,
An online that steadily dragged on its load,
And was driven by Johnny Bartholomew.
With throttle-va!ve down, he was slowing the train,
While the sparks fell around and behind him like ram,
As he came to a spot where a. curve to the right
Brought the black, yawning momh of a tumid in .sight.
And peering ahead wi:h a far-seeing ken,
I'Vrt a quick sense of danger come over him Ihen,
Was a train on the trad-:? No i A peril as dire—
The further extreme of the tunnel on fire!
And Lhe volume of smoke a:-; it gaihered and rolled,
Shook fearful dismay from eadi dun-colored fold,
Ret daunted not Johnny ba-iholomew.
Beat faster his heart, though its current .stood still.
And his nerves felt a jar b:il no tremulous ihriil ;
And bis eyes keenly gleamed through thei" partly dosed lashes,
And his lips— not with fear— took die color of ashes,
L If we falter, these people bebincl as are dead I
So close the doors, fireman— wt '.l send her ahead !
Crowd or. the steam till shynUtles and swings]
Open the throttle-\\ah-1:1 Give her her vdngs I'1
Shouted be from hi? post in the engineer's room,
Driving onward perchance to a terrible doom,
This man they call Johnny Bartholomew,

firm grasping the bell-rope and bolding Jds breatn,
On, on through the Vale of the Shadow of Death,