The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-04-24

cable the project was ready for trial.
While the project was being talked over
several of the drivers had declared
themselves willing to undertake the
feat; but now that the basket was slung,
and after seeing it drawn ont over the
abyss, they we're less disposed to proffer
their services. 1t needed strong nerves
and stout heart to gaze into that
foaming gulf and not turn dizzy.
There was among It's a youngster
whom the old drivers called "Young
Molis Pesvy." Young Moll was a
hatf-breed (French and Indiau) girl, or
rather woman at this time, or thirty or
thirty three, and the mother of this
boy. Some of the drivers said that his
rightful patronymic was Skelly; but
this was rather an obscure matter.
"The Pecvy," as he was half. humor-
ously christened, must half been nearly
or quite eighteen. Tho rame was said
to have come to him one day in boy
hood, when a "peevy" was dropped off
in glut into ten or dozen feet of
water. Several of the drivers were try
ing to hook it up, but kept missing 1t.
they boy. then eleven or twelve years
old, had come along unobserved. Pres
emily, and without saying a word, he
dropped off the logs, brought up the
peevy and ran away, dripping. The
men laughed, and not knowing his
name, called him "the peevy-boy. +"
Afterward, when they found ont his
mother. they named the urchin "Young
Moll's Peevy." Bat his mother called
him Lotte. A stranger would not easily
have believed him the child of the fresh
young person who had cared for him I;
for he was unusually stalwart and
bronzed by exposure. Seen together
they rather resembled lad and lass. 1
thought so. at least, when first saw
her. coming to fetch him dry feet1ng
and . clean shirt. She had walked
twenty miles to bring them, through
the woods. following our trail. And
the way she kissed the young man,
aside, was, or looked to be, rather
on several similar occasions, I was
much struck by the genre picture they
made the youth had the great black
eyes and black curling hair of his
mother. The drivers used TO chaff the
and the care she took of him, all of
which he bore silently, with troubled,
resentful eye; though, otherwise, a
great ble-hearted boy, generous and
inclined to jollity. Really, the rough
woman for this motherly affection and
wealth of care for her boy. It was in
their uncultured faces, all the while
their tongues belied them.
The "basket" was slung and ready.
The gang ON the other side were gestic-
ulating, with random tugs at the line.
There was something whimsical in the
way the proposers of the project shrank
the one behind the other, with assumed
bravado and covert glances at each 9th.
"I shall have to go myself |" VilIate
exclaimed, with his characteristic
French oath. "I will go myeelf, as
fat as I am I" when bashfully, as il
afraid of giving offense, young Lotte
said he would go "if no better man
wanted the job" There were at first
muttered "non Mons" of discussion
in the crowd, but nobody claimed the
"job," and Villate was but too glad to
get q man to go. In a moment the
young man had stripped to his shirt and
red drawers, taken an ak and stepped
to the basket, but it was found to be in
securably attached and afterward sew
eral better modes of handling the line
were suggested, in all causing q delay
of an hour or two.
And now, as if the birds of spring,
just fitting past, had carried the wor /,
or some presentment of evil had found
its way to the Peevy's mother, she i'm
portunely made her appearance. Rad
Gates privately touched my elbow and
nodded back, up the bank. / then saw
young Poll partly in the cover of q
shrub fir, a hundred yards of, intently
watching the gang and the extended
wrap.
Several of the men saw her, but did
not look or notice her after the first
glance. Parbleu a pity she's here r.
one said, and they closed in about Lotte
to prevent his seeing her. But the
woman soon came nearer, going partly
around the crowd, keeping aloof. She
had new PLAID shawl, gayly colored
pinned closely about her neck, and her
long, black, Indian like curls, showed
beneath beaded scarlet hood. There
was an intently anxious look in her
eyes. she appeared worn and tired.
"The Peevy" was much too tall a
man to be shut up in the crowd. Pres
emily he espied her, and his eye fell.
After time he casually, as it were,
made his way back to her. None of us
heard what was said. The most in
stinctively kept their eyes to themselves.
The gang on the other side was starting
across the chasm. Villate ripped out
an oath, and saw Lotte push the girl
aside SO roughly that she caught at a
shrub to save herself. He walked
straight to the brink of the cliff.
81 am here" said he. never saw
him look so manly. We knew his eye
was quick and his hand sure. I had
little doubt that he would cut the front
logs and come up safe. We did not
know what the danger was till after
ward. He stood upright in the "bas-
ket, with one hand on the hawser to
steady himself, and his az in the other.
At a signal the gang on the west side
Strengthened .he line. We paid it out
slowly. They drew him out from the
brink Of the ledge, till, the basket was
directly over the center rock. Then
gradually we slackened it, and let him
down foot by foot, down under the
rainbow, where the hot, mad mist flew
up in fierce gusts, bearing the strong
odor of crushed spruce fiber. He
seemed to bear the deafening roar
without conclusion, and glanced about
him quite coolly, Is it looked.
Our attention was given closely to his
signals and to our task, yet I saw Young
Moll c ming forward, step by step, as
the "basket" went deeper and deeper
into the gorge, her eyes riveted on it.
She was very pale and her hands were
tightly clenched. The drivers cast
ominous glances at her.
81 don't half like the looks of the
woman !" 1 heard muttered, and 1
think the sight of her filed every one
with a sense of foreboding.
As soon as the basket was down to
the logs we saw him step out upon
them, and thence to the rock. From
moment to moment the mist hid him,
and transient jets of water, from be-
twixt the logs, squirted high over his
his head Guardedly he planted ore
boot, shod with the sharp corks, upon
one OF the large logs-the one he judged
it best to cut away first the other foot
reste 1 on the rock. The "basket" he
had placed ON hia hack We uere