American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-04-01

week, when early one morning, as l lay
invvmy ragged bit of tent, l woke up,
sudden-like, to roarin' noise like
thunder, and then there came whirl
and rush, and was swimmin' for life,
half choked with the water that had car
ried me off. Now it was hitting my head,
playful like, agen the hardest corners
of 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 Yallcr Gulch was
sweep away. sot on a bit o. rock, and
there was the water rushing down thir-
ty or forty foot deep, with every thing
swept before it-mules and tents and
shanties and stores, and dead bodies by
the dozen. just then hears a wild
sorter shrek, and, looking down, l see
chap half swimming, half-swept along
by the torrent, trying hard to get at a
tree that stood t'other side.
"Why, it's you, is it, Hez?" says to
myself as l looked at his wild eyes and
strained face, on which the sun shone
full. "YOu're gone coon, Hez, lad,
so you may just as well fold your arms,
say amen, and go down like man.
How could pot you, now, lad, if I'D
got shooting-iron-put you out OF
your misery like. You'll drown, lad
He made q dash and tried for a
branch hanging 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 bush with his left hand
and hung on like grim death to a dead
niger.
"Sarve yer right" says. coolly.
"Why shouldn't you die like the restP
If I'd had any go in me I should have
plugged yer long ago."
"Halloa?" 1 cried then, giving a
start, ait n't-'tis-tarnation! 1t
can't bel"
But it was.
There on t'other side, not fifty yards
lower down, on bit of shelf of earth
that kept crumbling away as the water
washed it, was Jael kneeling down with
her young'un, and as 1 looked some
thing seemed to give my heart a jigg,
just as if some coon had pulled string.
"Well, he's bout gone, ~ says; Sand
they can't hold out bout three minutes.
WHAT'S it got to do with meP shan't
move"
Just then, as sot and chawed, tell
ing myself as a chap would be mad to
try and save his friends out of such a
flood, let alone his enemies, darn me! if
Jael didn't put that there little squeal-
er's hands together and hold them up as
if she was making it say its prayers
born fool!-when that thar string SEEM
ed to be pulled, inside me like, agin my
heart and-I couldn't help i'll Jump
ed up.
essay, Dab," says to myself, "don't
you be fool. You hate that lot like
Dyson, you do. Don't you go and drown
yerself.''
l was bout mad, you know, and
couldn't do as l liked, for, if didn't
begin to rip off my things, wet and hang
ing to me. How they did stick but
cleared half on 'em off, and then, like a
mad fool, 1 made run and a jump, and
was fighting hard with the water to get
across to Hez's wife and child.
1t was a bit of 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 shell
where Jael knelt; when, if the silly
thing didn't begin to hold up to me her
child; and her lips, poor darling, said
dumbly, Z" Save it! save it!''
In the midst of that rush and roar, as
I saw that poor gal, white, Mortified
and with her yaller hair clinging round
her, all my old love for her comes back
and swore big oath as I'd save hel
for myself, or die. 1 tore her dress in
to ribbons, for there warn't a moment
to lose, and bound that BARN some
how on to my shoulders, she watching
me the while; and then, with my hear
beating madly, L caught her in my arms
she clinging tightly to me in her fear
and 1 stood up, thinking how 1 coult
get her back, and making ready to leap
The flood didn't wait for that, though
In a moment there was a culver of tn,
bank, and it went from beneath my feet
leaving me wrestling with the water
once more. don't know how did it
only that, after a fight and being hal
smothered, found myself crawling VI
the side of the Gulch, ever SO low down
and dragging Jael into safe place will
her BARN. She fell down afore me
Rugged my legs, and kissed my feet
and then she started up and began star
ing up and down, ending by seeing, jus
above her, old Hez cling there still, witt
his sound arm rammed into the bush
and his body swept out by the fierc
stream. \ The next moment she ha,
seized me by the arm and was pointin,
at him, and she gave wild kind O
shrek. ''He's gone coon, my gall"
says, though she couldn't hear me; an
was gloating over her beautiful whit
face and soft, clear neck, as 1 though
that now-she was mine-all mine. l.
saved her out of the flood, and ther
was no Hez to stand in our way.
Save him-save him!" she SHREK