The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-10-28
Of the waters.
It was a woman's yoice-his wife's.
h. rooI :

N coming under the rock In the
cancel" she cried. "Leap and meet me. F."
He turned and looked in the direction
from which the summons had come,
dazed and bewildered, for such leap
had never been made nor even contem
plated before.
But the heroic woman was already IN
the canoe, paddle in hand, having laid
her baby on the grassy bank, and rushed
to the rescue, in spite of the opposition
of her nelghbors, who looked upon her
husband as already doomed beyond re-
demption, and regarded her attempt to
navigate the boiling waters of the whirl-
pool as simple madness.
But she pushed off, and just as she
did SO, Brownie, the pet bear, clambered
into the stern of the canoe, and eat up
right upon his launches, keeping his
balance perfectly, and in reality aiding
not little in trimming boat, and bal
asting it, as it were, throughout the wild
voyage.
AS Mrs Van Bibber succeeded in reach
ing the center Of the stream, directly
under the ledge of the rock, her hus-
bands foes were almost upon him.
"Wifei wife, he shouted, drop down
little lower. I'm coming!"
With this, and with the clutches of the
Indians almost closing upon him.
he sprang from the crag, and descended
like plummet into the water, feet fore
most.
In an agony of suspense the wife rested
from her toll moment, watching for
him to rise to the surface, the canoe bob
bing about like a cookie shell upon the
angry food, and the pet bear eying his
mistress affectionately, as though fully
sympathizing with her distress.
1t was cnly moment, but an awful
one; it seemed an age to her. Would
her husband ever rise2
Her earnest gaze seemed to penetrate
the very depths of the turbil water, and
then, with joyous, thankful cry, she
darted the canoe further down the stream.
He arose to the surface quite near to
her, and was enabled to scramble into the
little craft without assistance, and amid
shower of bullets that was poured after
him by the baffied redskins, not one of
which, however, harmed either him or
his wife.
Then, seizing the paddle from her
hands, he swung the craft around, turn
ing Brownies back to the hostile bank,
and padded swiftly out of range of the
shots that were still showered after him.
But it is more than likely that poor
bruin had much to do with the immunity
with which his master and mistress were
permitted to draw out of range. At any
rate, when Van Bibber and his wife
reached the shore, and were assisted to
land by their rejoicing friends, Brownie
remained seated motionless in the stern
of the canoe, with his tongue hanging
out and his eyes closed, and he was found
to be stark dead, with his back fairly
riddled with bullets, more than one of
which must inevitably have reached the
human occupants, but for the chance
bulwark that had been presented by his
tough and shaggy frame.
Captain Van Bibber had experienced
greater shock from his terrific leap than
had been supposed, and he staggered
like drunken man as his wife led him
to the grassy spot upon which she had
deposited her babe, upon rushing to his
rescue, and where it was still lying, crow
ing and laughing at great rate, and he
then tainted away.
He soon recovered, however, and he
and his wife lived to q green old age,
with their family around them-many
of their descendants still surviving them
in the same fertile valley, and within
the very shadow of the great, overhang-
ing shelf which has ever since borne
their name, in deserving commemora-
ton of Van Bibber's leap.