Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-07-08
MICKEY films RAFT.
sAPEGAURD AGAINST IMPENDING
FLOODS.
Made from the Rails Of Stumpy Rsld Fence in The
Styls Of Noah-Ths Goslings in Micksy's
Pocket and How They Farsd.
Nsr York Sun.

Rain had been falling steadily for more
than q week. Sometimes it came down in
sheets, and again it fell in q slow drizziing
mist, which gave q depressed look to the
landscape. The trees in Lindsley's wood
dipped rain, and the two streams which
fed Browns pond were changed from
triekling silver rivulets into roaring,
muddy torrents, tearing madly along be-
tween their banks.
Mickey Finn's tame crow refused to 90
out of doors, ever when urged to do 30 by
Mrs. Firms broom, bat sat moping and
croaking hoarsely under the stove. The
three little yellow goslings peeped plain
lively and hid under the doorstep, but the
belligerent billy goat came out Of his bar
rel and stood in the rain, as though in de.
fiance of the elements. Mrs. Finn re-
marked one day that abe hoped he would
get the "newmonya," which remark her
son thought uncalled for and unnecessarily
severe.
Whether the flood at Cooney Island sug-
gested il, or whether it was o deliberate
attempt to inculcate q little biblical, Sc
well as profane, history into the minds Of
his pupils, is a matter of no Importance.
At any rate Mr.. Flaherty, the pompous
and superficial teacher of the little red
school. house under the hill, read the story
Of the deluge to his pupils one afternoon,
among whom was Mickey Finn.
Little Mike was profoundly impressed
with the story. As he was an imaginative
boy, he lay in his little trundle bed at
night listening to the patter Of the rain
upon the roof, and saw in fancy that great
ungainly ark floating upon the waters.
He pictured to himself Shsm, Ham and
Japhet psering anxiously out of the win
dOws, in search of the land, and to the
ears of his fancy came the bleating Of a
nanny goat and the lowing of a COW.
1t happens that the teacher said nothing
to his scholars about the bow set in the
heaven as a sign that there should be no
more flood, and 30 Mickey, reasoning that
the earth, and especially Cooney Island,
was to be inundated, began to think about
some means of deliverance. So troubled
did he become over the momentous ques-
ton that his mother noticed his abstrac-
ton. She feared that her boy was going
to be ill. Still the thought of how to
save his mother and father and the ami
mails from the threatened destruction
stuck to him like q burdock. At last,
after hearing from jack Doolan some in
cidents in the adventurous life of Robin
son Crusoe, an idea came to him. He
would build a raft!
81 can make il out o. the rails in tn
Stumpy Field fence" said he to himself.
The idea tickled him 30 much that he be-
gan dancing n jig in his mothers newly
scrubbed kitchen, and she boxed his ears
and sent him down cellar to chop some
wood. Here he contided his scheme to
the nanny goat with IN admonitory shake
of the head that abe was not to tell ANY
wan, not even tn billy" He would be
sure to cave her and the three goslings,
but the crow could take care of himself,
''bekase he had wings"
Mickey decided to keep his scheme O
profound secret from every one; not even
Jack Doolan was to know it until the raft
had been completed and the flood began to
come in at the kitchen door.
Although little Mike was possessed of
more of the resources of civilization than
fell to the lot of MIR. Noah, the ark build
er, still he was hampered by the necessity
for secrecy. And so three days passed be-
fore the raft was finished. Mickey meas.
ured the raft with a top cord, aud found it
to be two cubits in length and one cubit
and a span in width, although he did not
figure according to Hebrew methods.
So pleased was Mickey with the success
of his undertaking that it was only by the
most herculean efforts that he restrained
the secret within his bosom. There were
his parents, unconscious of coming danger,
and he hsd the means of saving them from
a terrible fate. The only relief he had was
daily communion with the billy goat.
: "Now, Billy" he would say, "ye needn't
be Altered. Fax, thare's room on tn raft
for you an yer wife. Ifye'll only kape still
an not be buckiu' yell not be drowned
like thin other billy goats"
At last the day memorable in the annals
Of Cooney Island came. The dawn was
murkey and gloomy. Little Mike arose
with the sun and dropped softly out Of the
window, He was about to test the raft to
see if it was pondworthy. He first took
the billy down to the pond aud tied him
to a bush. The nanny followed. The
g~oslings were safely slowed away in the
boys pockets, where they kept up an una
yailing peeping against the close c~onfine-
ment. The dog went along with
out any urging. The billy, the
nanny and the dog each had q
corner of the raft to itself, while the gos-
lings were granted the freedom of the deck.
The raft was propelled by a long pole.
Dat into the muddy waters of the pond
Mickey urged the raft, while the crow flew
around in wide circles overhead. The raft
foated and behaved beautifully. 1t rode
the troubled waters like Mrs. McGee's
drake. The floating domestic mensgerie
was getting along swimmingly until that
notorious gossip, Mrs. Murphy, looked out
| of the kitchen window and Jaw the raft.
She uttered q yell of terror and exclaimed
God save Us! thare's that larrup Mickey
Finn foatin' around on a big boord wild
goats and dogs; an phwat's thin little
| yaller things on tn boord? Musha, but
thare's goslings! Run, Paddy, an tell his
! mother"
In less than five minutes all the resi-
dents Of the island were on the margin of
the pond, including the elder Firms. Mrs.
Finn was in a paroXysm OF fear lest her son
should be drowned, while her husband con-
tented himself with brandishing q stout
hickory stick in Mickey's direction and
| threatened to use it if he did not ''stheer
tn boat ashore"
In the meantime the slucs gate of the
pond had been lifted in order to relieve the
dam Of too much pressure. The raft
swung around into the current made by
the sucking sluice gate. The dog began to
howl and tug at his cord. The goslingl
ran hither and thither upon the raft, and
their feeble pseping wruDg Mrs. Films
heart with anguish.
"AhP vera, vera! me g~oslin's'il &c
down tn mill race!'
All the time Mickey was working with
all his might with the pole. and at las,
succeeded in getting the raft ont of the
current. Encouraged by his mothers
pleadings and frightened by his fathers
threats poled the raft toward the shore on
which his parents were standing. The
water was falling rapidly and the raft
caught upon a post. Before little Mike
could release his ark from its precarious