The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-01-10
ovERTON DINGEss' DEFENCE.

But L own what did for Peter Adkins, about
which it seems you hsv' heerd.
Was S5ft; yet in like SuckumStances I'd do
it agin' I'm. afeerd.
Pete lives on the mouth of Big Cany, jes
whar' it comes out on Guyan;
An all of the neighbors around him, they
jedge he's quarrelsome man;
AM with me, that was sot down as frien'ly
by every one thar on the crick,
He allus was ugly an spitefIl, an striving
aquarrel to pick.
Twas he went an hamstrung my beifer, be-
kase in his pastur' she broke
Shot two of my shoats in the holler, which
was gwine pooty fur for joke;
An let in Sam Farley's four cow-beasts, and
his mar, in my cOrn-feld one night
An the waythey destroyed an theytrompled,
the neighbors, they said, was sight.
WelI-las' June was fresh in the riT6r: it
riz thirty feet, sun an sun.
Guyan it went Dustin and whoopin' twas
wuss'n race-hoss to run.
I've heerd of the Falls of Niag'ry, with all
of its rushin' and roar;
But, eff II is wuSs II Guyan was, don t want
TO wade it, for shore.
The dreens in the mountings were branches;
the branch il swelled up to crick;
The crick it turned into a river; the river
got ragin' an thick.
1t riz an it riz tell reckont its risin c nuv
Yer be done,
Thout it got TO the tops of the ridges, an
drowned us out uvry one.
I stood thar fernent the ole cabin, a-watch-
in the drift an the dirt,
AS they shot to the head of the rapids in a
regular quarter-hoss spirit,
When along on his mar come Pete Adkins,
an him Dustin drunk, L could see,
Slap down to the ford wbar' the water was
rushin' as swift as could be.
He sot on the sickle hammed clay-bank he
got when he married his wife.
I don't s'pose the animil uVver he'd he'd
good bait in her life;
An from her pars' nal tx pericnce she couldn't
as uVry one knows
A curry-comb tell from broad-axe, nor hay
from suit of store-clo'es.
know it was none of my beezness, but see
in him gwine on path
a kinder short cut to his ruin, an bilin mad
in its wrath
1 sung ont: 1.-The rivers past fordin' % But
he was so awful fool bent,
He tole me TO go to a hot place, an, spurrin'
his mar, in he went
Jes' thar there's a bend in the rivera crook
like hoss-shOe, you know
So took short shoot through the bottom,
as quick scairt yearlin' doe;
But, quick I was, jes got thar, an into
the river / lep',
An hedu't struck out more n a minute, fore
right by my fingers he sweep.
He was suttingly scairt TO deestraction, an
made 4 smart grab at my ar;
Eff he'd ketcht il, gOod-by to Owe Dingess-
we'd both of us dro~nded right thar
So I fetcht him n lick powerful desput, an
stunted him some with the blow
Thar wasn't no time for politeness, as any
fool cretur' might know.
The say we went over them rapids was aw-
7, y 10 feel an TO see ;
T allowed more II wunSt / was drOwnded-
4. YCly seemed to
An uvry dern 'iool thing an mean thing I'd
done from 10y earliest years,
They all seemed to come mp afore me, while
water was film my ears.
We shot like ball 1.,om rifle, the par of
us did. down the slope
Even now when I think o. the purrlI, feel
uvry narve in me lope
But I hilt my head outen the W. .'ter-t wan [
10 use tryin' 10 swim;
1 kept all my mind on my beezness, an Kept
good holt on TO him.
An when we had got down the rapids, the
current ii gev us spin,
An swirled lis around in the eddy jeCged
that when fust jumpt in
l kept up right master struggle, as into the
hank thar we run;
1 grabbed a long limb swingin over, an
then all the danger was done
1 let down my feet an tetcht bottom, an
foun' it was PoGty firm groun';
L
an the neighbors come roun
An mebbe my Nance didn't scold me, set
tin her long tongue to 60,
Alongside of which, when it's started,
hutter-wheel runs rather slow.
She said that man with nine childring,
'thout sayin word for his wife,
Had no right, for chap like Pete Adkins,
to run such a risk OF; his life
That oughn't to be quite so gin 'rous-gin-
erosity weemen condemn,
Leastwise that's my pars nal Experience, tx
cep' when you're gin 'rous to them.
She said that I'd ruined my clothin', an it
made of factory jain
She d cut her right foot on the fence-rall,
the place whar she Jumpt in the lane
I'd ruther sarve Peto than my fam 'ly she
wished she'd ha' laid down and died ;
But she conldn't find words for the subjec',
an so she jest hugged me an cried.
An Pete, on his back for fortnight, KEEP
lynn a rasslin' with death
II raelly seemed the half drowndin' had
tuck away half of his breath
So turned in an must the poor cretur, an
sot with him thar night an day,
Till myself an the doctor, we dragged him
from the grave, n body may say.
The neighbors hev all sot agin me for doin'
so much i'll the case;
An yit dunno eff they wouldn't hev done
the same thing in my place;
1t was proberbly saft to go reskin' my life
for cretur like him,
But how on the yeth could / help it, me
KNOWN that he couldn't swim?
My smoke-house was jam full of bacon--he
hedn't side to his name;
Eff I'd let them pore childring go hungry, l
allow I'd hev felt it n shame.
An my Nancy-a mighty fine woman, eff
she has quick tongue in her head
She done for them motherless creturs, an
KEEP them in coffee an bread.
AS for Pete, the affair was a lesson, bless
in to him an his kin;
He sw w'ars that the blue-headcd borrils he
nuvver II sample az in;
/ allow eff he'll stick to that notion, an stick
to his work like a man,
It's all that I'll seek for the trouble of pull
in him outen Guyan.
AT Liverpool the great sensation now is 4
...a,r,nr, 1uhn lea MS throngh the air on tiYing