The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-05-14


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 siung, and after seeing it
drawn out over the abyss, they were less
disposed TO proffer their services. It
needed strong nerves and O stout heart
to gaze into that foaning gulf and not
turn dizzy.
There was among us youngster
whom the old drivers called g Young
MolPs Peevy. Young Moll was q half
breed french and Indianl girl, or rather
woman ct this time, Of thirty on thirty
three, and the mother of this boy. Some
of the drivers said that his righfful pat
ronymic was SkellY; but this was a
rather obscure matter.
The Peevy, as he was half -humor-
ously chEiskened, must have been nearly
or quite eighteen The name was said
to have come TO him one day in boy
hood, when g peevy was dropped of
glut into ten or dozen feet Of water.
Several of the drivers were trying to
hook it mp, but kept missing il. The
boy, then eleven or twelve years old, had
come along nnobserved. Presently, and
without saying . word, he dropped of
the logs, brought up the peevy and ran
away, Dripping. The men laughed, and
not knowing his nau1e called him " the
peevy. boy" Afterward, when they
found out his mother, they named the
urchin s' Young Moll's Peevy." But 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 for he was unusually stall
wart and bronzed by exposure: Seen
together, they rather resembled lad and
ia nk 1<.e1
saw her, coming to fetch him dry feetlng
and a 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 lover-like than ma
ternal. Afterward, ON several similar oc-
casions, was much struck by the genre
picture they made the youth had the
great black eyes and black cufling hair
of his mother. The drivers used to
chaff the fellow Increasingly about
him, all of which he bore silently, with q
troubled, resentful eye though, other
wise, a great ble-hearted boy, gener-
GUS and inclined to joIlity. Really, the
rough fellows thought the more OF. the
young woman for this notherly affection
and wealth of care for her boy. twas
in their uncultured faces, all the while
their tongues beied them.
The basket was slung and ready.
The gang on the other side we're ges-
ticulating, with random tugs at the line.
There was something whimsical In the
way the propOsers OF the project shrank
the one Dehlnd the otner, with assumed
Dravado and covert giances AZ eacn
others faces.
ss I shall have to go myself, Villate
exclaimed. with his characteristic French
oath. viii go myself, tat Is am +
when bashtulIy, as It afraid OF gIylng
otfense, young Lotte said he would go
!" If no better man wanted the job. "
There was at first muttered :. non Mons s
of q discussion IN the crowd, but nobody
claimed the job, and Slllate was but
too glad 20 get man TO go. In no-
ment the young man had stripped 20 nus
shirt and red drawers. taken nus az and
stePpe0 20 tne paekeSs put 1G va 81 1oun9 q
to be znseeurely astacneo ana after ward
several better modes Of handling t.ae
line were suggested, IN aH causing de-
lay Of an hour or two.
And n6,,. as II the birds of spring.
inst f!itt;nrr 1,ast. had carried thetword.
or sr,l seme I,reasentiment of evil had found
its wav to the Peevy's mother, she mop
porM1n1elv made her appearance. Rad
Gates privately touched my elbow and
nodded back, mp the bank. / then saw
young Mon standing partly in the cover
of shrub fir . hundred yards of, in
tently watching the gang and the ex-
tended warp.
Savaval of The men saw her. but did
not looE 81. notice her after The first
olanea g Parhle1, I 3. ,,itv sl.e,s here ~
one said. and they closed in about Lotte
to prevent his seeing her. But the
xuz<,vt1axa ers1, ra,na saea1,oF crni11fr T1artIv