Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-03-31
HOW HE ESCAPED.

Martha Willis stood at the door of
her fathers log cabin on the banks of
the Angelina River in Texas. She was
gazing intently across the stream. The
river was narrow, and the crossing was
IN the primitive style which prevails in
some portions of the State-a rope,
stretched tightly from bank to bank,
and tied to convenient trees, by means
of which small flat, or "bateau,"
usually manned by two persons, was
drawn back and forth.
This hot. drowsy, summer afternoon,
Martha--a girl of seventeen years
thought the longest she had ever spent.
Tie cattle stood painting in the stream
near the shore. Not breeze stirred
:he jungle of trees and bushes on the
other side of the river, and the field
around the house was q sun-baked
waste. Would her father never come?
He and the hired man had gone that
morning to town for supplies, leaving
her alone with Bobbie, her little six
year-Old brother-who at that moment
was lying asleep on the floor in an inner
room--and Eph. little colored boy of
ten, who had slipped into the woods to
hunt squirrels.
Now Martha was not Texas girl,
and was not accustomed to these wild
solitudes. Two years before, her
father had decided to mend, if possible,
his fortunes on Texas farm, but had
proposed to Martha to remain with his
relatives in Virginia until he had suit
able home for her.
"YOu are not accustomed to rough
ing it," he said; land life where shall
settle will be hard and lonely for years.
1t is new place. Our nearest neigh
Dor will be five miles away. do not
like to take you there at all, and if you
are wise you will stay with your aunt,
who wants you very much"
"Then I'm not a bit wise," Martha
said. with her bright face full of deter
mination. "And 1 think my kind
father is not quite wise in proposing
such a thing to me. Why. who will
attend to You and Robbie-a mere baby
he is too? If you are sick. who will
nurse you? l dare say, I'm not the
most helpful girl in the world, but do
you really think should be happy in
shirking all my duties and staying in
luxury, while you are undergoing all
kinds of privation?"
So Martha had her own way. and be-
ing bright, intelligent girl had
adapted herself to her new life with
wonderful facility. Her neighbors were
kind. good people. but they had little
time to visit, and then they were so far
OH that frequent social calls were i'm
possible.
But Martha interested herself in do
mestic duties. She raised poultry and
made the best butter in the county.
She had good collection of books. and
received some periodicals. She tried
also to keep up her studies; for she
reasoned justly that, if improved cir
cumstances allowed them again to mix
In cultivated society, it would not do
for her to blush for her own ignorance.
But this afternoon time hung heavy
on her hands. Her father in going over
the river had left the fiat fastened on
the other side, that it might be ready
for him on his return. Vainly she
strained her eyes through the thick un-
dergrowth of the opposite bank, hop
ing to see him coming down the mar
row path.
It's been as long as ten days." she
said. throwing herself down in a rock
ing-chair on the small porch. II be-
lieye I'm getting tired of this lonely
life. Day in and day out it's the same
thing, and nothing happens one day
different from any other day. And
when fathers away it's u thousand
times worse. / wouldn't care much
what happened. were it only something
out of the old routine. I'm getting
like the old sluggish pond in the field.
and feel the green scum growing over
me-"
Her discontinued eyes fixed them
selves on the swampy forest before the
cabin. and they did not move, even
when she heard the gallop of a horse
coming down the road.
Its old Jake Potter coming to bor-
row saw, or something; or one of
those abominable Haldon boys racing
after stray cow" she thought.
But no; the horseman was neither
Jake Potter nor a Ha.don boy. As he
pulled up his horse before the cabin,
Martha saw he was gentlemanly-
looking young man of about twenty
years of age. with q pale face, and q
strange. wild look. He touched his hat
70 her in mechanical manner.
Can get over the river here?" he
asked.
mo. sir. We don't keep the public
ferry" she answered. THAT'S more
than five miles down the river"