Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-01-09
GERTRUDE SAVED.
How a Flood Made two Men
Equal.

How a Flood Made two Men
Equal
New South Wales Is colony pecL-
liarly liable to floods. Its rivers gen.
orally take their rise in the lofty noun
tain ranges, and in the early part of
their course are Joined by numberless
tributary streams. When the rainy
season has set in-which generally COM
mences about the middle of May-the
downpour sometimes continues for six
weeks at time, and then these rivers
overflow their banks and flood the sur
rounding country far and near, forming
in many places miniature seas. Upon
these occasions hundreds offarmers are
ruined, thousands of sheep and cattle
generally destroyed and not unfreQuent-
ly many valuable human lives sacri-
feed.
| Perhaps the district most liable to dis
astrous floods in the whole colony is the
broad vale of the Hunter, where every
few years, thousands of acres are sub
merged with suddenness that is truly
appalling. Houses are frequently bur-
led beneath the chimney-tops beneath
the waters, which rapidly form an in
land sea of at least hundred miles in
length by score in width.
In the year 1866 l was quartered at
Windsor, little township about twen-
ty-five miles distant from Sidney, the
metropolis of the colony, and for some
months had chiefly engaged in the ar
drOus and by no means romantic duty
of hunting for Illicit stills, of which it
was supposed there were several in the
neighborhood:
certainly did my best to discover
their whereabouts, but was completely
unsuccessful, and after traversing the
country day after day, in every kind of
disguise, until must have travelled, on
foot and ON horseback, many hundreds
of miles, at last gave up the matter rs
bad job.
If had not found still, however,
had in the course of my wanderings
discovered what gave me far greater de-
light, for had fallen across one of the
prettiest and most lovable little girls
that an Australian or any other sun
ever had the honor of shining upon,
and, what was better, had so ingra-
tiated myself in her good graces as to
win her promise that she would never
marry any one but me.
Our acquaintance had commenced i'm
a romantic manner enough. l rescued
her from wild COW, who would GER
tainly have gored her had l not inter-
posed and shot the brute.
She was too frightened to walk home
alone, and so accompanied her, was
introduced to the. parents as matter
of course, and they were profuse in their
thanks, and begged me henceforth to
look upon their house as my home, and
so forth.
promptly took them at their word,
and every other evening, and sometimes
even oftener, my charger would be COM
fortably stalled for hours at time in
Farmer Martins stable; and, mean
while, the pretty Gertrude and myself
would be either wandering by the riv-
er's bank, studying poetry together in
the old Summer-house, or, as the cold
weather drew on, playing chess in the
snug little back parior.
These things continued until the
rainy season set in, but instead of be-
ing deferred by the steady down pours
my visits became, if possible, more fire.
quent, and through the slushy lowlands
where the water was often above my
horses knees, l nightly logged, like a
marine centaur, to revisit my manor
alta.
By and by the fathers suspicious were
aroused.
Could it be possible that mounted
trooper, wearing English uniform,
would ride nightly through mud and
rain, and thunder and lightning, and
hail and wind, drink glass Of grog
and smoke a pipe with all old man of
sixty?
Common sense answered 'No," and
having fair stock of that commodity,
so also said Farmer Martin.
"The girl he's after, and it's time to
put a stop to this nonsense" was the
conclusion he arrived at.
And so the very next evening that |
rode over, before Gertrude and could
finish our third game of chess, Mr..
Martin put his head into the room and
said, in dry, dignified kind of way:
"Hem! Could speak with you few
minutes in the front parlor, Mr.. Rush 20
think l knew what was coming, so
did Gertrude, for she grew very pale,
and upset the chess-board i'm her agita-
ton, so that kings, queens, bishops,
knights, and all the. smaller fry, went
rolling over the room.
Meanwhile followed the old gentle
man into the front parlor-that horrid
room where everything was buried
either in chintzes or yellow muslin, and
where fire was never lighted more
than once year; and here he opened
the trenches, not angrily, but collected
ly, calmly, determinedly informing me
that his daughter could never be mine,
for that he was tolerably wealthy
man, and he had resolved never to wed
his child to one who was not possessed
of portion equal to her own.
In vain told him how much loved
his daughter, that she loved me In re-
turn, and that we could never exist
apart from each other. The old man
merely smiled sarcastically, and point
ing to my uniform, said:
The man whose very coat is not his
own, and whose pay is only seven shil-
lings and sixpence day, cannot marry