its advantages and i could not let the people of and other towns to which i was due know what had become of me nor why i disappointed them so i resolved to dig out if possible and as the were stiu rising rapidly the only course was to start at once a council of wise friends decided that i could not reach if i were ever so bent upon it and should find no train there if i did and that the only hopeful course was to take the highest or eastern road and steer for half way to at once by taking this course i should turn several leaving only main really formidable so a and capital span were procured from a livery stable with their shrewd and capable owner as pilot and at a little past o clock we put out into the storm resolved to see miles by our route before daylight if possible though the clouds were thick the wind blew and the rain poured there was a good moon above all which though obscured gave about all the light that was really necessary though is built on the sand we crossed wide stretches of water before we had cleared it and of the miles of high sand ridge that between it and main i judge that fully a fourth lay under water stiu hoofs and wheels brought up on frost and it was not till we descended into the bottom of main that matters began to wear a serious aspect forty rods west of the ordinary channel of the creek we into the water which grew gradually deeper until our boots and baggage had drunk of it to just at this point the driver s quick and wary eye caught sight of some plank or timber which had formed part of a bridge over one of the ordinary side cuts of the stream when over its bank � said plank or timber head being even with the surface of the flood with such an angle of inclination as indicated that the bridge was a wreck and had probably in good � part floated off he up ms horses before reaching it and turned them face about and in a minute we were back � not to dry but to land here we took sweet together and i offered to return to if he considered it to persist in going forward he studied a moment and concluded to make another attempt which he did and went through above the treacherous bridge though i don t believe any man could have done it two hours later we were soon in water found the main bridge all right and no deep water east of it though smith s creek a which enters main just below the bridge set back upon and covered our road with a swift current for perhaps a quarter of a mile the driver was familiar with the road and thought it had never been so covered before soon however we ascended a long badly hill of the very worst clay and breathed more freely on the high level covered in good part with water and not pretty but never threatening to float u bodily off like that main having reached five or six miles on our way the driver called up a friend and borrowed dry while i made in my baggage for a like but with very results main had been there before me and had made everything fit for his wear and unfit for mine i closed and bag with a shiver and we resumed our weary way i do like the though their admirers won t admit it and i cheerfully that the best going we found was on the virgin turf true the were many and wide yet there was frost and ice at the bottom of them which seldom cut through but whenever it did it gave horses and a my pilot picked our way with great judgment and we were stopped and hardly checked until we came out on the main road westward from three miles distant that three miles of dense was the heaviest travelling i ever and if our horses traversed it in an a winter flood in hour and a quarter they did passing well on the naked we felt little anxiety for if the seemed too deep straight ahead we could sheer right or left ad only taking care to keep some in view if possible but roads imply bridges over the water courses and these bridges were far more perilous than the water courses themselves stiu the wind blew still the rain fell in spite of our repeated that it would soon hold up and still our horses slowly onward until those three miles seemed to me interminable our main business was to watch the bridges just ahead and see that they had not been washed out and they generally seemed to stand remarkably well at last was in sight the last bridge was passed no not the last for our horses were in a deep this instant a second more and they sprang out and jerked the in with a crash that is still audible the nigh fore wheel snapped its tire and went down an of oven wood split but held on and the driver was pitched across my knees head downward into the deep mortar bed termed the road i went forward on my face but clung to the wreck with my feet entangled in apron and blankets and as the horses started to run the look ahead for an instant was not flattering only for an instant however the idea of running with that wreck through such mud after a heavy night drag of eighteen miles was so essentially ridiculous that no well bred horse could have entertained it ours perceived this instinctively and soon up while the driver recovered his feet and his reins if he had 