Butte record., 1854-04-22
THE souATTER's ADVENTURES.

"Well, stranger, We have foods here
in Louisiana, such "a. guess, Won have
never seen the like of in England. Eng
land is not large enough to have such
titods One OF them ould cover your
whole country, have heard said |
will n It sey 'ha, it is tlus, as | am not
acquainted With your geography. | know,
however, there are mighty biz freshets
here, SIS have saiicd skitf more than
hundred miles across one Of them,
where there Sas nothing to be seen but
cypress tops peeping out OF the water
The foods, ss you know, come every
year, but the large ones only occasion
ally. Well, about ten years ago | loca-
ted in the Red River bottom. about fifty
miles or ihsreabouls below Nschitoches,
where / built shanry ] had left my
wife and two young children in Miss =
sippi State, intending to return for them
carly in the spring 90, You see, i was
al alone BY myself, except my mare, d
Collins axe, aud, Of course. my rife
bid finished the shanty all but the
.hinHing and the building Of tie chin
uev, when what should come on on
o ght bat one OF those severe foods. 1t
was at night when it began to make it,
appearance. | lay asleep on the floor
of the shsntv, and the first animation |
had OF it was feeling water soaking
through my old blanket. had been
dreaming, and thought it was raining !;
and then again | thought J was sinking
~ the Mississippi; but soon discovered
the reality, jumped TO my feet like
clarified buck, and CROPPED my way to the
door. What sight | beheld | had
cleared piece OF ground around my
shanty--about couple of acres--leav-
lug the sturnps good three feet high !;
hut there was not one to be seen. My
clearing, stumps and all, was submerged !;
and | could see it shining among the
trees all around the shanty. OF course,
INV first thought was about nv rife and
| turned iuto the shanty and laid my
hands upon that quick enough. | next
started in search OF my old mare. She
was not hard to find, for if ever crea-
ture made noise she did She stood
tied to a tree close by, and the way she
squealed was caution.to cats. ] found
her in three OF four feet of water, pitch
ing and foundering all round the tree.
She had nothing on but the rope she was
hitched BY. Both saddle and bride had
been foated off so | made the rope into
a sort of halter, and mounted her bare
backed
Just when begun to think where |
should 90. The whole country appear
ed TO be submerged, and my nearest
neighbor lived across the country ten
miles off | knew that his shanty stood
on high ground, but how to get there =
1t was night might loose the trail,
and ride chuck into the river. When |
thought Of this, concluded to stay by
my own shsuty till morning | could
hitch the mare inside to keep her from
floating off and for myself could climb
on the roof While | stood thinking of
this, noticed that the water deepened,
and thought entered my head that it
would soon be deep enough to drown my
old mare. For myself, | did not feel
afraid | could climb tree, and stay
there till the food fell but l should then
lese the mare, and that creature was too
valuable to think of such sacrifice, so
made up my mind to chance crossing
the prairie There was no time to lose
--neves minute; 50 | gave the mare
F+ek a. twa in the ribs. ssa started.