Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-07-28
AND TIE WATERS.

AMlD THE WATERS.
You must remember well the Wiley
food as plain Is though it was but yester-
day, stranger -
"Did you live in the same place that
you do now"
my cabin stood out yonder, near the
bank of the river. You can see the spot
from the doorway here. There, near
where that large elm stands"
! should have thought that the water
would have swept it away, standing as it
did on the low ground"
1T did sweep itaway, stranger. and my
wife and child with it. If you have time
to hear it / don't mind telling You the
story"
PLENTY of time, and nothing would
suit me better. ] am always anxious to
hear anything of that night which has
invested the Notch of the mountains with
such mournful interest"
The foregoing conversation took place
one day last summer between myself and
an old settler among the mountains, at
whose cottage / had stopped for glass Of
milk, and to rest awhile from my walk.
From one thing concerning the noun.
tains to another we passed, and l
found that there were many incidents
which he remembered of much interest to
the tourists, that had not found their way
into any of the guides or histories Of the
mountains which have been put forth. At
last we came to speak Of the great freshct
known in all the hill country as the
Wiley food, and which possesses a
mournful interest for all the jewellers in
that region aud then ensued the CONVEX
sation which have recorded as preface
to the story which / have reproduced for
the entertainment of my readers:
It was in 1925, and was young
man then, and had just set up in the
world for myself. had been married
two years, and my wife had baby boy
of some six months. For the first year
/ had lived with my father over the noun
tains yonder, and then bought this piece
of intervale, and built q cabin on it, and
commenced life for myself. We had no
neighbors very near then. the highest be-
ing some three miles down the
river, while across the mountains to faith
er's it was mile further. Still they
seemed nearest to as, for we saw them
much oftener than any one else-there
never being but few days at time but
some of us passed back and forth.
worked hard the year built my cabin,
and by the opening Of the next season
had quite clearing made about it, and
and Mary, as we sat in the doorway in
the early evening, and gazed about over
our possessions, used. to think that we
were on the high road to prosperity. and
looked forward to the time when we
should have one of the best farms lying
about US, that there was in all the noun
famous region. OF one thing we were
sure, and that was, that the soil could not
be beat, and labor only was wanted to
make it bring forth abundantly.
The first part Of that summer, our
crops looked finely, and gave promise of
an abundant harvest; but as the season
went on, a drought set in, which babe fair
to scorch everything green and tender
from the face Of the earth. Every day
the sun came up, and went its fiery round
without cloud to keep its fierce rays
from the earth, and when at last August
came in, even the little dew that had fall
en- at night was withheld, and the crops,
deprived of this, no longer strove to live,
but turned yellow, sank upon the earth
and withered away. A large part that l
had planted went in this manner, and our
clearing presented little the appearance
it had done in the spring time. Still, if
rain would come soon, there would be
enough saved to carry us through the
winter, and that was more than many
would have
As the month went on, there came signs
Of rain, but all Of them failed. In the
morning, and through the early part OF
the day, dark clouds would gather and
cover the SUBMITS of the mountains, and
we would think that it must rain, but by
noon they would all clear away. without
as much as sending down few drops
upon the parched earth.
And so the month wore away until the
morning of the twenty. fifth, the one be-
fore that on which the flood came.
That dayI had been over the noun
tains to fathers, doing some work for
him, as he was unwell, and promised to
come back the next morning and com.
plete the job. The sky, as usual, had
given signs of rain, but we pu. no conf
dence in II, thinking that we should be
disappointed, as we had been all along;
though an old Indian woman, who dweit
far up the valley, and who CHANGED along,
and paused in the doorway for rest, de
clared that we should have the greatest
StOlm WitLlA tWO dhyo tu0t VIC IcsA OVOA
known. But we put little confidence in
this, for we considered her half crazed,
and had she not been, we thought it was
little that she could know Of what was to
come.
The next morning when we arose, we
found that it had rained very little
some time during the night but the sky
and clouds did not look SO threatening as
they had done for days previous. We had
an early breakfast, and when 1t was over
I set out over the mountain to do my
days work, telling my wife that should
not be back before dark, but should surely
return some time in the evening.
/ found, when reached fathers, that
he was not as well as he had been the day
before, and that mother was much wor-
ried about him. He declared that 1t was
nothing, only one of his attacks to which
he was subject, and that he would soon
be over it. Mother shook her head, and
hoped that he was right, and ! went out
into the field to work, and did not come
again to the cabin till noon.
Instead of being better, he was much
worse, and mother declared that must
saddle the horse, and 60 down to Conway
for Doctor Buggy but father would not