Explore "A Pot of Jam" by Francis Hopkinson Smith on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
After a fit of choking that could be heard all over the train the left lung of the locomotive gave out. I had heard her coughing up the long grade and had begun to wonder whether she would pull through, when she gave a wheeze and then a jerk, and out went her cylinder head.
Boston was four hours away and time of value to me. So it was to all the other passengers, judging from the variety and pungency of their remarks -- all except one, an old lady who had boarded the train at a station near the foot of the long grade and who occupied a seat immediately in front of mine.