The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-04-23

Whom the old drivers called "Young
MolPs Peevy." Young Mol was a
hah-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 vas rather an obscure matter.
THE Peevy," as he was hall. humor-
| ously christened, must half been nearly
or quite eighteen. The name was said
10 have come to him one day in boy.
hood, when "peevy" was dropped off
| in glut into ten or a dozen feet of
water. Several OF the drivers were try
| ing to hook it mp, but kept missing it.
They boy, then eleven or twelve wears
| old, had come along unobserved. Pres
emily, aud without saying a word, he
dropped off the logs, brought up the
pesvy and ran away, dripping. The
men laughed, and not knowing his
name, called him "ths peevy-boy. -
| Afterward. when they found out his
mother, they named the urchin "Young
MOlrs Peevy." But his mother called
hum 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 stalwart and
bronzed by exposure. Seen together
they rather resembled lad and lass. /
| thought 50, at least, when first I saw
her, coming to fetch him dry feetlng
and clean shirt. She had walked
twenty miles to bring them, through
the woods, following our trail. And
the way she kissed the young map,
aside, was, or looked to be, rather
"a A I
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 10 chat the
fellow increasingly about Young Moll
and the care she took of him, all of
which he bore silently, with a troubled,
resentful eye; though, otherwise, a
great n0ble-hearted Boy, generous and
inclined TO jollity. Really, the rough
fellows thought the more of the young
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-
ulatiug, 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
brayadO and covert glancos at each 9th
er's faces.
81 shall have to go myself p Villate
exclaimed, with his characteristic
French oath. 81 will go myself, as
fat as am !" when bashfuliy, as if
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 a discussion
Ill the crowd, but nobody claimed the
"job, and Villate was bat too glad to
get 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
seeurably attached and afterward sew
eral better modes of handling the line
were suggested, in all causing q delay
of en- hour or two.
And now, as if the birds of spring,
just fitting past, had carried the wor /,
or some pTesentment of evil had found
its way 10 the Peevy's mother, she i'm
portunely made her appearance. Rad
Gates privately touched my elbow and
nodded back, up the bank. I then saw
young Poll partly IN the cover of a
shrub fir, hundred yards off, 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 pity she's here I"
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 a new PLAID shawl, gayIy coIored
pinned closely about her neck, and her
long, black, Indian like curls, showed
beneath a beaded scarlet hood. There
was an intently anxious look in her
eyes she appeared worn and tired.
The Peevy" was much too tall
man to be shut up in the crowd. Pres
entity 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 l saW Lotte push the girl
aside so roughly that she caught at a
shrub to save herself. He walked
6lIdl8lb 10 Tie DTlHh Oh UuS Clu-
I am here" said he. / never saw
him look so manly. We knew his eye
was quick and his hand sure. I had
little donbt that he would cut the front
logs aud 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 ak in the other.
At signal the gang on the west side
Strengthened the 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 i'll fierce gusts, bearing the strong
odor Of crushed spruce fEer. He
seemed 10 bear the deafening roar
without conclusion, and glanced about
him quite coolly, as it looked.
Our attention was given closely to his
sig ais and to our task, yet saw Young
Mol ming forward, step by step, as
the " ba- ket" 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 chances at her.
'I don't half like the locks of the
woman y [ heard mutteIed, and I
think the sight of her filed every one
with a sense of reboding.
As soon as the basket was down to
the logs we saw him step out upon
them. and thence 10 the rock. From
moment to moment the mist hid him,
and transient jets OF water, from be-
twiIt the logs, squirted high over his
his head. Gu8rdejlv he planted o
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 on the rock. The basket he
had placed on his back. We were
holding it steady from both banks,
ready to pail it up when signaled. Be-
fore and beneath him ragged the cata-
Tact. We saw him raise his ak and
strike it into the log. The bright steel
flashed in the narrow chasm. At the
fourth stroke the great log cracked.
He threw the ak and clutched the
basket. A mighty crash rang up. The
jam had started-was moving-going
Observation-Disclosures
into the glut, hole The wet spllnters
oil oIoDor Al,a yoD;Io xuorE w n h., 1ro5