The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-09-20

Inc young IOlkS nau best nlI mar
ried, though. ef they're goin' to; both
of EN-. I've no fear fer Jennie an
Ensign. They'll git on all right, as fan
as they let folks git on that works for a
Twin. and if Lucy loves Mr.. Annelsey
Is'pose that's all right. too. and she
had better write fer him to come and
get her at once II he don't want her to
get tanned up with campin' out in the
foothills"
Mrs. Parsons thought the whole sit
uation over and over, again and again.
All night she lay awake thinking of
their changed circumstances and of her
husbands words, and in the morning
she did substantially what he had sug-
gested she wrote her daughters. tell
Ing them the ranch was Hooded and de-
stroyed, that the cottage itself would
be untenable before many days, but
forbidding them 10 return home until
they heard further from their parents.
Your father and do not yet know
what we shall do" she wrote. There
seems no place for us to 90 TO. Some of
the neighbors, whose houses are on
higher ground than ours. have offered
TO let us stay with them until we can
find place to rent, but We can not
long be a tax on the hospitality Of those
who have themselves lost everything
except the shelter over their heads, and
who must, like us. soon seek other
homes.
I'VE are talking of going down into
the great valley and renting place of
some Of the big landlords, but it is very
hard to think ef working all the rest of
our lives without hope OF ever having a
place Of our own again. and if We can
lind little place anywhere that is for
sale. if it is only few acres with moth
ing but a shanty on it, we had both
rather buy il than to rent. even if we 90
in debt for it; but We do not know of
any such that is safe from the overflow
Of these terrible mines.
''You must not worry about it toe
much. dears; and you must not come
home until you hear from us again,
which will not be long, for we must dc
something, and that quickly.
''lou could not help much if you
were here until we know what we arr
to do, and would probably be more ex
pense here than there, and we viii
write you again just as sooa as we de
termine where we shall 90.
Then she added, in postscript:
You know how much your fathcl
and love you and how anxious we ar,
10 have you always with us; but this W,
know can not be, and if the men whom
you are to marry urge you to a speed,
union lou have our consent, and it ma,
be best sc"
This letter John Parsons mailed al
Phippsburg, a little town on the rivcl
ten miles above the landing where the,
usually did their trading.
When Johnny saw his father prepar
ing to start he began to cry piteously
and begged him not to leave them to b.
swallowed up by the terrible flood.
The poor child was not only nervous
but actually frightened. He had sa
propped up in his little wheeled cot a
the low window and wat ched the slow
~ rising flood until it had grown Il
seem a thing of life, frightful mon
ster, such as he had read about in fair,
stories. only thousand times more
horrible, ready to swallow them al
talive; and his pale face grew pa.el
still, and his eyes, large with suffering
grew larger yet with fear, and he would
not consent that either parent should
remain long out of the room, and a
night went to sleep holding to hi
fathers hand only to awaken when al
Was still with screams Of fright at thu
things which he saw in his dreams
Then John Parsons would arise ant
sit by his side and talk to him, and tel
him stories, and soothe him until hi
sobs ceased and gradually he dropped
of to sleep again, only TO see once NOR,
the horrid shapes that peopled his sleep
ing fancy, and awake in an agony o
fear and trembling.
And now he begged and cred unit
his parents feared he would 90 int,
commissions at his fathers leaving. bu
there seemed no other way. for the,
knew that the neighbors were ei.he
busy trying to save something from tn,
general wreck, or absent looking TO
some place TO move to. People VIII,
are SO foolish As to build their house
where wealthy corporations may wisl
to empty the garbage from their bacl
yards can not humor the fancies of the:
crippled children. They are like tn
birds that build their nests upon tn
ground where the farmer desires to SO,
IBIS grain-wiiose nests are turned unde
by the plowshare with never a though
of the loss to the little bunch of brow
feathers that cries SO piteously and fiul
tiers about the spot where its little one
lie buried beneath the sod.
1t was early in the morning whe
John Parsons started with the letter
He knew that he would be forced +
follow . somewhat devious route il
order to avoid the overlooked distric,
but he was on horseback and expects
to make the canter of ten miles an
back by noon at farthest, and so toll
his wife and Johnny.
But noon came and no father. The
one O'Clock, and still he had not come
Mrs. Parsons kept the dinner war;
and waited. She had spent the morr
NJ in packing, - best she could, the