Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1877-12-12

- Pc
luck, don't be hard on yer mate"
Then he held out his fist, but l could
not take it, but turning of, / ran hard
down among the rocks till / dropped,
bruised and bleeding, and didn't return
to my tent that night. !.
/ got a bit wilder after that. Hex and
Jael we're spliced up and / allus KEEP
away. Hez used to com to me, but l
warned him oil. Last time he come
ACROSS me, and tried to make friends,
I" Hex" says ], "keep away. Pm des-
prit like, and / won't say l shan't plug
yeri" -.
Then Jael came, and she began to talk
to me about forgiving hiW;; but it only
made me more mad nor ever, and 90 l
went and pitched at the lower end of the
Gulch, and they lived at t'other.
Times and times Pve felt as If I'd go
and plug Hez on the quiet, but | never
did, though / got to hate him more and
more, and never half 70 much rs l did
nigh two years arter, when ! came upon
him one day sudden, with his wife Jael,
looking potter than ever, with a little
white-haired squealer on her arm. An
it riled me above q bit to nee him &C
smiling and happy. and me turned into a
bloodshot, drinking, raving savage, that
half the Gulch was feared on, and t'other
half dareh't face.
Early one, morning, as l lay in my rag
ged bit of q tent, | woke up ~sudden-like,
to q roaring noiae like thunder; and then
there came a whifi aad a rush, and was
swimmin' for life, half cisoked with the
water that had carried me On. 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 something high up-and in about
4 wink the hull settlement in Yaller
Gulch was swep away.
"Wall," l says, getting hold of a
branch and drawing myself out, some on
'em wanted a good wash, and this'll give
it 'em;" for you see water had been
scarce lately, and what there was bad all
been used for cleaning the gold.
] sOt on q bit O rock, wringing that
water out of my hair-leastwise, no; it
wa some n else like who 50 there,
chaps / knowed, you see; and there was
the water rushing down thirty or forty
foot deep, with everything swept before
it-mules, and tent, and shanties, and
store, and dead bodies by the dozen.
"Unlucky for them," ! says; and just
then ! heard a wild sorter shrek, and
looking down, l see a chap half-swim-
ming. ~half-swept along BY the torrent,
trying hard to get At a tree that stood
t'othcr side.
Why, it's you, is it, HezT I says to
myself, as l saw his wild eyes and strain
ed face, on which the sun shone full.
You're q gone coon, Hez, lad; 30 you
may Just as we'll fold yer arms, say
amen, and 60 down like a man. How I
could pot you now, lad, if I'd got a
shooting-iron; put you out o yer misery.
You'll drown, lad"
He made a 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 a wrench, the bone went
crack, and rs I sat still there / see him
swept down lower and lower, till he
clutched at a bush with his left hand
and hung on like grim death.
"Sarve you right" / says, coolly
" Why shouldn't you die like the rest,
If I'd had any 60 in me should have
plugged yer long ago."
"Halloa" l cried then, giving {
start. at ain't-'tis-tarnation! il
can't bel"
But it was.
There, on t'other side, fifty yards low
er down, was = bit of shelf Of earth tina
kept crumbling away as the waite
washed it, was Jael, kneeling down will
her young 'un; and as | looked, some
thing seemed II give my heart a iigg
Just as if some coon had pulled a string
"Well, he's bout gone" l says
" and they can't hold bout three min
utes; then they'll all drown together
and she a take old Hez his last babb,
to nuss, 'cuss 'em! I'm safe enough
What's it got to do with me? sham
move"
/ took out my wet cake Of 'bacca, an,
whitfield offa bit, showed it in my cheek
shut my knife with a click, and sot tina
watchin' Of 'em-father, and mother an
BARN.
"You've been too happy, you have,
/ says out loud; not AZ they could hea
it, for the noise of the waters. "No,
you'll be sorry for other people. Drown
blame yer! stock, and lock, and barrel
I'm SAFE"
Just then, as l sot and chawed, tellin
myself as a chap would be mad to tr
J and save his friends out Of such a floot
let alone HIS enemies, blame me! il ia,
didn't put that there little ~squealer
, hands together, and hold them up as
she wax making it say its prayers
born fool!-when that thar string SCENE
> to be pulled, inside me like, agin m
heart; and-Ic couldn't help it-Ijumpe
: up. =.
sSsy, Dab" / says to myself, "don
7 you be . fool. You hate that lot iii
1 pison, you do. Don't you go and drow
y~oursel."
/ was bout mad, you know, an
couldn't do as l liked, for, if l didn't b
gin to rip off my things, wet and han
ing to me. How they did stick! but
cleared half on 'em of, and then, like,
9 mad fool, / madea run and a jump, ar
was fighting hard with the water TO Q
. across TO Hex's wife and child.
. 1t war a bit Of a fight. Down I wen
and up I went, and the water twist
me like q leaf; but ! got out of the 70
and thunder, on to the bit of a she
where Jael knelt; when if the silly thil
h didn't begin to hold up to me her chill
y and her lips, poor darling, said dumbl
r "6ave it! oh, ave i'll"
In the midst of that.rush and roar,
| saw that poor gal, white, Mortified, q
with her yaller hair clinging round b,
= all my old love comes back, and I swo
4 big oath AZ I'd ave her for myself
" die. AS
i'll / tore her dress intOs ribbons, for thu
warn't . moment to lose, and l bou
y that BARN somehow on to my shoulde
u abe watching me the while; and tn,
with my heart beating madly, / caue
her in my arms, she clinging tightly
ct me in her fear, and I stood up, think
II how l could get back, and maxi
% ready TO leap.
n The flood didn't wait for that, thou,
In . moment there was q culver Of
to hank. and IL went from beneath NV fe