Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-04-20

But it wouldn't do. 1 soon SCI
which way the wind blew She wa
the only woman in camp and coul,
have the pick, and she picked Hez
/ was bout stariD' mad first time
met them two together she a-hang
ing on his arm and looking up in hi'
face. worshiping him like some o
them women can worship great big
strong he; and as soon as they wal
got by L swore a big oath as He7
should never have her. But HeZ anC
Jael were spliced up and / allus KEEP
away. When 1 wanted an ounce OIL
two Of gold l worked and when I'd
got it / used to drink-drink. because
/ wanted to drown all recollection OF
the past. Hez used to come to me
but / warned him off. Then Jael
came and she began to talk to me
about forgiving him, but it only made
more mad nor ever, so l went and
pitched at the other end of the Gulch
and they lived at 'tother. Times and
times I've felt as il I'd go and plug
Hez on the quiet, but L never did,
though got to hate him more and
more, and never half so much as I
did nigh two years arter when / came
upon him one day sudden with his
wife Jael. looking pootier than ever,
with little white haired squealer on
her arm. An il riled me above a bit
to see him so smiling and happy and
me turned into blood shot, drink
ing, raving savage that half the
Gulch was feared on and t'other half
darn't face.
1 had been drinking hard for about
week, when early one morning. as I
lay in my ragged bit of tent, woke
up suddenly-like, to roarin' noise
like thunder. and then there came a
whirl and a rush, and was swiramin'
for life, half choked with the water
that had carried me off. Now il was
hitting my head. playfully like, agen
the hardest corners Cf the rock it
could find in the Gulch; then it was
hitting me in the back or pounding
me in the front with trunks OF trees
swept down from the mountains, for
something had bust-a lake or some
thing high up-and in about wink
/ the hull settlement in Yaller Gulch
was swept away. 1 sot on a bit o.
rock, and there was the water rush
ing down thirty or forty feet deep,
with everything swept before it
mules, tents and shanties and stores,
and dead bodies by the dozen. just
then hears a wild s)rter shrek, ,and,
looking down, l see chap half
swimming, half-swept along by the
torrent, trying hard to get at tree
that stood t'other side.
why. it's YOU is it, Hez?" 1 says
to myself as / looked at his wild eyes
and strained face, on which the sun
shone full. You're a gone coon. .Hez.
lad. so you may just as well fold yer
arms, say amen, and go down like IA
man. How could pot you now, lad,
IL I'd got shooting-iron-put you
out o your misery like. You'll drown,
lad"
! He made a dash and tried for a
branch h nging down, but missed it
and got swept against the rocks.
where he showed his arm between
two big bits, but the water gave him
wrench. the bone went crack. and
as sat still there l see him swept
lower and lower, till he clutched at "a
bush with his left hand and hung on
like grim death to a dead nigger.
"Sarve yer right" / says coolly,
why shouldn't you die like the rest? !?
If I'd had any go in me should have
plugged yer long ago"
"Halloal" I cried then, giving a
start. 1T -'tis-tarnationl 1t
can't BET"
But il was.
There on t'other side, not fifty
yards lower down, on bit OF a shelf
of earth that kept crumbling away
as the water washed it, was Jael
kneeling down with her young u'n,
and as looked something seemed to
give my heart jigg, just as il some
coon had pulled string.
well, he bout gone." says; "and
they can't hold out 'bove three min
utes. What's it got to do with mel
I shan't move
Just then, as / sot and chawed.
telling myself as chap would be
mad to try and save his friends out
OF such flood. let alone his enemies,
darn me! il Jael didn't put that there
little squealer's hands together and
held them up as il she was making it
say its prayers-a born fooll-when
that thar string seemed to be pulled,
inside me like, agin my heart; and
couldn't help it, jumped up.
."Say, Dab" l says to myself, "dont
you be fool. You hate that lot like
pyson, you do. Don't you go and
drown yerself."
was bout mad, you know. and
couldn't do as liked, for, il didn't
begin to rip off my things, wet and
hanging to me. How they did stick
but / cleared half on 'em off, and
then. like mad fool, made a run
and a jump, and was fighting hard
with the water to get across to Hez's
wife and child.
1t was bit OF a fight. Down /
went. and up / went, and the water
twisted me like leaf but got out
of the roar and thunder, on to the bit
OF shelf where Jael knelt; when il
the silly thing didn't begin TO hold up
to me her child; and her lips, poor
darling, said dumbly, "Save it! save
it,"
In the midst OF that rush and roar
as 1 saw that poor gal, white, horri-
fed, and with her yaller hair clingine
1 n L Ill IL L