The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-01-31
BELLEVUE, La, THURSDAY, JANUARY 81, 1873.

and in about a wink the hull settlement
in Yaller Gulch was swept away.
"Wall," l says, getting hold of a
branch, and drawing myself out, "some
on 'em wanted good wash, and this'll
give it 'em;'' for you see water had
been skeerce lately, and what there was
had all been used for cleaning the gold
| sot on bit o. rock, wringing that
water out o. my hair-leastwise, no; it
was some one else like who sot there,
chaps | knowed, you see; and there was
the water rushing down 80 or 40 feet
deep, with every thing swept before it
mules, and tents, and shanties, and
stores, and dead bodies by the dozen.
+" Unlucky for them,'' says; and just
then | hears wild sorter shrek, and,
looking down, I see a chap half-swim-
ming, half-swept along by the torrent,
trying hard to get at a tree that stood
t'other side.
"Why, it's you, is it, Hep" 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 60 down like man. How
| could pot you now, lad, if I'd got a
shooting-iron put you out O. yer misery
like. You'll drown, lad"
He made 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 as sat still there
l see him swept down lower and lower
till he clutched at d bush with his left
hand, and hung on like grim death to a
dead niger.
Sarve you right" I says, coolly
"Why shouldn't you die like the rest!
If I'd had any 60 in me should have
plugged you long ago.
"Holloa?n | cried then, giving a
start. cit 'tis-tarnation! il
can't BET"
But it was.
There, on t'other side, fifty yards
lower down, was bit of shelf of earth
that kept crumbling away as the water
washed it, was Jael, kneeling down
with her young 'un; and, as l looked
something seemed to give my heart {
jigg, just as if some coon had pulled {
string.
"Well, he's bout gone," I says
"and they can't hold bout three min
utes; then they'll all drown together
and she can 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, anc
whitfield off bit, showed it in my cheek
shut my knife with a click, and sot thai
watchin' of 'em-father, and mother
and BARN.
"You've been happy, you have"
says, out loud; not as they could heal
it, for the noise of the waters. "Nov
you'll be sorry for other people. Drown
darn yer! stock, and lock, and barrel
Pm safe"
just then, as l sot and chawed, tell
ing myself as a chap would be mad tx
try and save his friends out of such ;
flood, let alone his enemies, darn me
if Jael didn't put that there little squeal
er's hands together, and hold them W
as if she was making it say its prayers
born fool!-when that thar strins
seemed to be pulled, inside me like, agil
my heart; and, | couldn't help it,
jumped up.
you be fool. You hate that lot lil1
pyson, you do. Don't you 60 ant
drown yourself
1 was bout mad, you know, ant
couldn't do as l liked, for, if I.didn'
begin to rip off my things, wet and hang
ing to me. Cuss me! how they di,
stick! but cleared half on 'em off, an,
then, like mad fool, [ made run an,
a jump, and was fighting hard with tn
water to get across to Hez's wife ant
child.
1t was bit of a fight. Down went
and up / went, and the water twiste,
me like leaf; but l got out of the roa
and thunder, on to the bit of a shel
where Jael knelt; when, if the sill
thing didn't begin to hold up to me he
child, and her lips, poor darling, said
dumbly, "Save it, oh, save iti''
In the midst of that rush and roar, a
/ saw that poor gal, white, Mortified
and with her yaller hair clinging roun,
her, all my old love for her comes back
and | swore big oath I'd save her fo
myself or die.
| tore her dress into ribbons, for ther
warn't moment to lose, and l boun,
that BARN somehow on to my shoulders
she watching me the while, and then
with my heart beating madly, l caugh
her in my arms, she canging tightly t
me in her fear, and stood up, thinkin,
how could get back, and make read
to leap.
The food didn't wait for that though
In moment there was quiver Of tn
bank, and it went from beneath my feet
leaving me wrestling with the water