The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1885-09-10


reached; in the morning IL was foot
deep within the inclosure, aud was rap
idly approaching the door yard from
three sides.
Now it reaches the front gate, creeps
through the latticed fence and up the
gravel walk. One by one the flower
beds disappear, swallowed up by the
horrible anaconda that is winding its
folds about the doomed cottage. whose
inmates watch its approach in helpless
agony, knowing that no human power
can prevent the total destruction of ali
that years of toll and economy. had en-
abled them 10 accumulate.
| What is TO be done?
Already dozen Of the neighbors
have been driven from their houses and
are domiciled in those more remote
from the scene of the overflow, or are
camping out among the hills overlook
ing their desolate homes.
A few more days and the ocean OF
mud and water will enter their own
cotlagei where shall they seek for ref
ugeP
There is no one in the cottage now
but John and Martha Parsons and the
crippled boy; the young girl who was
with them for time having returned
4 to her own home, and Jennie and Lucy
/ being still in San Francisco.
! Evidently the girls could not long re-
main at school now, for their parents
had no longer any means of paying
their expenses. Every dollar of the in
come of the past year had been eX-
pended in paying for work upon The
dam and in the effort to obtain the
injunction, and but fifty dollars re-
mained in bank of that once laid aside
to aid Erastus, now upon his own
| claim at the Slough.
"The girls must come home Mrs.
Parsons had said when word came
that the dam had broken and all was
lost
1--WE must send for them, father II
We are TO lose everything we can not
pay their expenses in The city any long
en- and II you viii take it to the Office !
will write letter at once, telling them
to come by the first boat
But her husband pointed TO the lake
OF mud and water, already six or eight
feet deep. over the road across the
creek bottom.
1--WE can't git to the landing" he
said. IA horse would mire in that
stuff fore he got halfway to the bridge"
Then we must go to the landing
above. Can't you get some of the
neighbors to 90 for you2 Mr.. Ritchie's
Henry will 90, think. You know
they are not in as much danger yet as
we are. "
~ kin git some one to go, s'pect,
Marty replied her husban /; Il kin
cit some one 10 20, reckon, but there
amt no home fe the girls TO come to,
er ther won't be by the time they nd
git the letter and git here"
"Oh, joint john is it possible that
we have lost everythingh sobbed Mrs
Parsons, dropping into chair and
burying her face in her apron
John Parsons made ro reply, and
after few moments his wife checked
her sobs and raising her head asked.
as there no wayP Can not the dam
bp rebuilt and made strong enough and
high enough to stop this awful de-
struction of the homes of honest peo.
pleP"
"a reckon we've did everything that
kin be done he returned, except it
is to push for the injunction ON the
companies, and that amt any use now
that the damage is done; and as fer the
dam. why the hull gulch is chock-full
O. slickens and stun, and there amt no
possible chance OF doin' anythingi
mo, wife, he added in a hopeless
tn,a nr ,-ntnn ssfhnro nonft pnlhinf hn
done We're driv out agin by them as
cares npthin' for others, or who think
that nothin' is wrong that the law can't
punish 'cln for, and we have got to
work hard in our old age and may be
die in n poor-house at the end. Ii it
wasn't for you and Johnny should
wish / were dead Already, and | don't
see as theresis any use in my liviT any
longer anyway, for can't seem to per-
tect them as is dependent on me, though
the Lord knows Eve tried to do it.
Mrs. Parsons arose aud came and put
her arms around his neck and laid her
head upon his shoulder
"You have done all you could, John,
and all anybody could have DONE" she
said, ''and you must not feel so, dear
II is better for iis thousand times to
lose the place and everything on it than
to lose you. And then, seeing the
tears start in his eyes, she added: Don't
cry, dear. We have each other yet,
and the children, and will manage
some way. The girls will probably
marry soon, so that they will not suf-
fer greatly by the loss of the ranch, and
we shall then have only ourselves and
Johnny to provide for, and if we live to
be too old to work am sure the chill
dren will be glad to have us with them"
May be, msp be, " returned her hus.
band. "a hope %, for your sake and
Johnny's. but want to die before be-
come a burden on any one. Ell Lucy
and Erastus, now. had a married and
could have had the place all right,
shouldn't ever have thought Of bein' a
burden on them, cause they're both
our own children like, but now we have
no place for ourselves, let alone givin'
it to them, and Lucy has took notion
to marry one of the chaps as is respon-
sible for our ruin, aud I'm thinkin' he
wouldn't be over proud of the old folks
ef they waste ask for a place by his
iireside in the big house they's agoin'
to hev in New York. At any rate I'll
never ask it. I'd rather starve.
fro BE CONTINUED