"Then there was a sough amang us wi' the drawing in o' sae mony breaths, for, indeed, we never looked for yin o' them ever to stir again. Geordie Grierson managed to stop his train after it had passed maybe twenty yairds. He was leanin' oot o' the engine cubby half his length an' lookin' back, wi' a face like chalk, at Muckle Alick and the weans on the bank.
"But what was oor astonishment to see him rise up wi' the bairns baith in his ae arm, and gie his back a bit dust wi' the back o' the ither as if he had been dustin' flour off it.
"'Is there ocht broken, think ye, Geordie?' Muckle Alick cried anxiously to the engine-driver.
"'Guid life, Alick, are ye no killed?' said the engine-driver. And, loupin' frae his engine, Geordie ran doon, if ye will believe it, greeting like a very bairn. And, 'deed, to tell the truth, so was the maist feck o' us.
"'Killed?' says Alick; 'weel, no that I ken o'!'
"And he stepped across the rails wi' the twa weans laughin' in his airms, for a' bairns are fond o' Alick. And says he, 'I think I'll pit them in the left luggage office till we get the express cleared.' So he did that, and gied them his big turnip watch to play wi'. And syne he took the luggage over and cried the name o' the station, as if he had done nocht that day forbye eat his denner.
"Then there cam' a lassie rinnin' wi' a loaf in her airms, and lookin' every road for something.
"'Did ye see twa bairns? Oh, my wee Hugh, what's come to ye?' she cried.
"'Ye'll find them in the luggage office, I'm thinkin', lassie,' says Alick."