Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1857-06-05

village, who were spending an afternoon
in shady retreat by the bank of mill
stream. There were three or four young
men and half dozen maidens; and, as
it often happens on such occasions, some
rivalries were excited among the former.
These should have only added pi-
quancy to the merry intercourse of all
and would have done so, had not the i'm
patient temperament of Logan carried
him a little beyond good feeling and a
generous department towards others. -
Without due reflection, in no sarcastic
spirit, Edward Wilson made remark on
some act of Logan's that irritated him
considerably. An angry spot burned
instantly on his check, and he replied
with words of cutting INSULT so cutting
that all present expected nothing less
than blow from Wilson as his answer
to the remark. And to deal blow was
his first impulse; but he restrained the
impulse, and it required more courage to
do this than to have stricken the insolent
young man to the ground. A moment
or two Wilson struggled with himself
His flushed and then paling face, his
quivering lips and unsteady eyes, left
on the minds of all who witnessed the
scene an impression somewhat unfavora-
BILE. Partaking of the indignant excite
ment Of the moment many of those pre-
sent looked for the instant punishment
of Logan for his unjustifable insult
When, therefore, they saw Wilson turn
away without even a defiant answer, and
heard the slow, sneeringly uttered word,
coward" from the lips of Logan, they
felt there was a craven spirit about the
young man. A coward we instinctively
despisc; and yet how slow we are to
elevate that higher moral courage which
enables a man to brave unjust Judgment
rather than do what he thinks to be
wrong, above the mere brute instinct
which in the moment of excitement, for
gets all physical consequences
AS Edward Wilson walked away from
bis companions, he felt that he was re-
garded coward This was for him
trial; and the moro so, because there
was one in that little group of startled
maidens for whose generous regard he
would have sacrificed all but honor.
1t was perhaps half an hour after this
unpleasant occurrence that Logan, whose
heart still burned with an unforgiving
spirit, encountered Wilson under cir
cumstances that left him free to repeat
his insulting language, without disturb
ing the rest of the party, who were anu
! sing themselves at some distance, and
beyond observation lie did not sue
coed in obtaining personal encounter
as he had desired.
Edward Wilson had been for some time
sitting alone with his unhappy thoughts,
when he was aroused by sudden cries of
alarm, the tone of which told his heart
too plainly that some imminent danger
impended. Springing to his feet, he ran
in the direction of the cries, and quickly
saw the cause of the excitement. Re
cent rains had swollen the mountain
stream, the turbid waters of which were
sweeping down with great velocity. Two
young girls who had been amusing them
selves in boat that was attached to the
shore by long rope, had, through some
accident, got the fastening loose, and
were gliding far out into the current,
with fcarfully increasing speed towards
the breast of mill-dam some hundreds
Of rods below, from which the water was
laundering down a height of over twenty
feet. Pale with terror, the poor young
creatures were stretching out their hands
toward their companions on the shore,
and uttering heart-rending cries for
| succor.
Instant action was necessary. or all
would be lost. The position of the young
girls had been discovered while they were
yet some distance above, and there hap
pening to be another boat on the mill
dam and that nigh at hand, Logan and
two other young men had looscned it
| from the shore. But the danger Of being
carried over the dam should any one
venture in the boat seemed 50 inevitable
that none Of them dared to hazard it.
Now screaming and wringng their hands
and now urging these men TO save their
companions, stood the young maidens Of
the party on the shore, when Wilson
dashed through them, and springing into
the boat, cried out:
"Quick, Logan! Take an oar, or all
is lostw
But, instead of this, Logan stepped
pace or two from the boat, while his face
grew pale with fear Not an instant was
wasted. At glance Wilson saw that if
the girls were saved, it must be by the
strength of his own arm. Brayely be
pushed from the shore, and with giant
strength, born Of the moment aud for
the occasion, from his high, unselfsb
purpose, he dashed the boat out into the
current, and bending to the oars, took
direction at an angle with the other boat,
towards a point where the water was
sweeping over the dam. Ateyery stroke
the light skiff sprung forward a dozen
feet, and scarcely half a minute elapsed
ere Wilson was beside the other boat.
Both were now within twenty yards Of
the fall, and the water was bearing them
down with a velocity that stronger
man, with every advantage on bis side,
could scarcely have commended against
successfully To Transient the frightened
girls from one boat to the other, in the
few minutes Of time left ere the down
sweeping current would bear the frail
vessel to the edge Of the dam and still
10 retain advantage, was, for Wilson, i'm
possible To let 60 his boat and man