11. The Boy and the Train

Kenneth Oliver, a boy of eleven years of age, who lived in Tampico, Ill., returning home from school one afternoon, saw a little girl only seven years old playing on the railroad track. Suddenly he noticed a heavy freight-train coming on, at full speed, drawn by two great engines. The little girl did not see or hear the train, and was playing on, entirely unconscious of her danger. The boy quickly ran to the track, took hold of the child, and dragged her to one side of the rails, but he missed his footing, and the boy and girl rolled down the embankment together just as the train dashed past. It was not an instant too soon, for the edge of the pilot-beam struck the girl, bruising her, and missed killing the boy by an inch. The boy thought nothing of his danger. The tumble down the bank into the ditch seemed like a joke to the two children, although they felt the effects of their somersaults for some time afterward. The little girl’s mother, full of gratitude, told what this boy hero had done; all the country round soon sang his praises; and not long after he received a medal and two thousand dollars from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. It had always been his wish to go to college. This enabled him to get his wish, for the money was enough to pay for his education.