The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-04-28
THE GREAT FLOOD.
A eRANDMoruER's STORY.

How long was it, do you ask, little
Benny? Sixty-one years, if it was a |
day. 1t is now June. l was seventy
nine the tenth of last April and that |
worst day of the Great Flood was on one
other tenth of April, exactly sixty
years before. 1t was my eighteenth birth
day, too; / remember it as we'll as any
thing else that happened. For that matter
l remember it all well enough; it's not
very likely that shall forget such time
as that was until the sods cover me.
Come here to my knee, little Benny, and
I'll tell you all about it.
The country was new then-not so new
that the Indians or wild animals troubled
us much, for there were only few of the
Deiawares very near US, and they were so
much civilized that they cared for nothing
but whisky; and stray wolf or cata
mount was all that troubled our pigs or
chickens When | say it was new
country, mean that il was pretty much
all woods, with very few settlements, and
not many people in them. They were
mostly along the banks of this river, for
almost every one was numbering or raft
ing and that was what brought father
here from Vermont. My mother died
away up among the Green Mountains
and it always seemed to me as if he
couldn't bear the old homestead after
that. He grew very restless and uneasy
and one day he came home early in the
afternoon and said to me:
Daughter, have a chance to sell the
place at bargain. Shall do it This
hasn't been like home TO me for two
months l think I'm wanting new scenes
and new faces to blunt the grief l have
for her that's left us. Shall we 90 to
Pennsylvania, Bessy? I've plan to 60
into the lumber trade and mayhap Ill
make so much money in year or two
that well 90 to Philadelphia, and you'll
be fine lady the rest of your days.
Shall we go, Bessy 2"
Poor father! The dear, kind soul
lived and died with the wish nearest his
heart to make me fine lady. I'm thank
ful that he never saw it accomplished
but he did see me become a useful woman,
and, l hope and trust, good wife and
mother. How that happened, Benny, is
the story that I'm telling you now.
Look from the north window, there,
boy +; I'd come and look with you, but my
rheumatism is bad today. No matter.
Do you see that long point of land,
mile up stream, that runs out into the
water? Yes we'll look little closer at
it. Fartliest from the shore it spreads
out into an acre of good, high land, but
the narrow neck that joins that to the
shore is commonly almost as low as the
bed of the stream. There are great high
stepping stones across it now, that father
laid there when we first came; and we
used to walk dry shod over them when
the spring rains had raised the river. ]
remember but one solitary Time when the
water covered the stepping stones as well
as the neck of land, and that was the
! time of the great flood
Our little house was built on that high
! land out in the middle of the rivera two
story frame affair, with two rooms down
stairs and two up; and, after all, it took
! all the neIghbors to raise the roof. 1t was
an odd notion of fathers in putting it
there he used to say that the day would
come when he could sell off valuable
water privileges around his acre. That
day hasn't come yet, Benny but some-
times, when l think of poor, dear father,
and all his plans and schemes for me, and
of what happened, / really think that
something like Providence put it into his
heart to fancy that queer little corner out
there in the river, and to build our house
there am going to tell you what
mean right away. ~
After the little house was built and fur
nished, l stayed at home and kept it, and
| father took to the woods with the loggers.
He led hard enough life from that time
ON till he died summer and winter he
| was at work with his men-sometimes at
the logger's camp, then hauling the logs
to the river and rafting them down to the
bay, where he sold them to the contractor.
There were weeks when he wouldn't
be at home day but Sunday but when
he was rafting l often heard his shout on
| the river, and could see him waving his hat
from the raft as 1t went slowly down the
stream with the currenta hope l was
a good daughter in those days tried
nv best to do all could for him. / kept
the house neat and tidy, and mended his
clothes and regularly once day cook
ed great mess which was taken up hot
to the logger's camp in great tin pail
that was got from the city.
I was lonesome-like often enough, for
there were whole days that did not see
human being to exchange word with,
but Ben Sample, who almost always came
for the dinner. Heigh ho Its long
enough ago that I'm telling you of, and
handsome Ben Sample was then hardly
twenty-one. don't know, my boy, but
the lads are as handsome and sprlghtly
and as good now as they were threescore
years ago {; if say not, it may be because