The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1878-01-18

Times and times I've felt as II I'D 90
and plug Hez on the quiet, but never
did, though got 70 hate him moro and
more, and never half SO much as l did
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
1t riled me above bit to see him so
smiling and happy, and me turned into
blood-shot, drinking, raving savage,
that half the Gulch was feared on, and
t'other half daren't face.
had been drinking hard-fiery Bour-
bon, you bet!-for about week, when
early one morning as lay in my ragged
bit Of tent, woke up suddcn.like to a
roaring noise like thunder; then there
came whirl and rush, and was
swimming for life, half choked with the
water that had carried me off. Now it
was hitting my head, playful like, agen
the hardest corners of the rock 1t could
find in the Gulch; then ii 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 wink the hull settlement
in Yaller Gulch was swept away.
WALL" l says, getting hold of a
branch, and drawing myself out, sssome
on 'em wanted good wash, and this'll
give i '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 -leastwise, no; it
was some one else like who sot there,
chaps knowed, you see; and there was
the water rushing down 30 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," Isays and just
then hears wild sorter shrek, and,
looking down, see 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" | says to
myself, as 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 yer arms,
say amen, and go down like man. How
l could pot you now, lad, if I'D got
shooting-iron put you out o. yer misery
like. 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 wrench, the
bone went crack, and as sat still there
see him swept down law6r and lower
till he clutched at bush with his left
hand, and hung on like grim death to
dead niger.
Sarve you right" l says, coolly.
I" Why shouldn't you die like the restP
If Id had any 60 in me should have
plugged you long ago"
"HolloaP" l cried then, giving a
start. ut -'tis-tarnation it
can't be-"
But 1t was.
There, on t'other side, fifty yards
lower down, was bit of a shelf OF earth
that kept c~umbling away as the water
washed it, was ,Jael, kneeling down
with her young 'un; and, as | looked,
something seemed to give my heart a
jigg, just as if some coon had pulled a
string
"Wcll, he's bout gone" | says
g and they can't hold bout three min
utes; then they'll all drown together,
and she can take old Hez his last babby
70 nuss, cuss 'em! I'm safe enough.
What's II got TO do with mcP | shan't
move"
took out my wet cake of 'bacca, and
whitfield of bit. showed II in my cheek,
shut my knife with click, and sot thar
watchn' Of 'em-father, and mother,
and BARN.
:" You've been happy, you have" ]
says, out loud; not as they could hear
IL, for the noise Of the waters. Now
you'll be sorry for other people. Drown,
darn ycri stock, and lock, and barrel;
I'm safe"
just then, rs sot and chawed, tell
ing myself as chap would be mad TO
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 up
as II she was making 1t say its prayers
born fool!--when that thar string
seemed TO be pulled, inside me like, agin
my heart; and, couldn't help it,
jumped up.
" Say. Dab" / says 70 myself, "don't
you be a fool. You hate that lot like
pyson, you do. Don't you 90 and
drown Yourself"
| was bout mad, you know, and
couldn't do a. l liked, for, IL | didn't
begin to rip off my things, wet and hang
ing TO me. Cuss mel how they did
stickl but cleared half on 'em off, and
then, like mad fool, made run and
a jump, and was fighting hard with the
water TO get across 70 He's wife and
child.
II was bit Of fight. Down went,
and up went, and the water twisted