Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-20


 Mrs Parsons arose and came and put her arms around his neck and laid her head upon his shoul Ter.
 You have done all you could, John. and all anybody could have done,' she said, ''and you must not feel so, dear. It is better for us a thousand times to lose the place and every thing on it than to lose you" And then, seeing tie tears start in his eyes, she added: Don't cry. dear. We have each other yet. and the chl lrcn, ana will manage some way The girls will probably marry soon, so that they will nol suf- fer greatly by the 10 s of the ranch. and We shall tl!cn have only ourselves and johnny to provide for, and if we l,e 10 be too old to work am sure the chil- drcn will b. glad 10 have Us with t, en-"
 May le. may be. rc urncd her hus- lani. ''l hope so, for your sake an Johnny s. but want to die before be- come burden on any one. Elf Lucy and Erastu!, now. had a marriel and could have lad the place ail rig t. 1 shouidn ever have thought of b fin burden on them, cause they're both our own children like, but now we lave no p ace for ourselves, let alone givin' it to them, and Lucy as took q notion to marry one of the chaps as is re>pon- sble for our ruin, and I'm tllinkin' he wouldn be over proud of the ol fol ef they was to ask for place by his i res de in the big house t ey's a .oin to hev in New York. At any rate I'll never ask it. I'd rather starve.
 ''The young folks had best g't mar ried. though, ef they re goin' to; both of 'em. I've no fear fer Jennie an Ensign. They Il git on all right, as far as they let folks git on that works for a Twin, and if Lucy loves Mr. Annelsey l S'pose that's all r,g t. too. and she had better write fer llim to come a, d get her at one, of he dnn't want her to get tanned up witq campin' out in the foot hii,.".
 Mrs. Parsons thought the whole sit uation O. CT anal over, aga n and agan.
 All n ght she ay awake tn hiking of their chan ed circumstances and of her husbands wor $, and in the morning she did substantially what he had sug- gested she wrote her daughters tell ing them the ranch was foo cd and de- stroye l. that th' c)ttage itself would be unt'nalle lief re many days, but forb dding them 10 return home until they near further from u cir parcn s.
 Your father and do n, yet know what we shall do,' she wrote. .'There seems no place for Us to go to. Some of the neigh ors, whose houses are on higher ground than ours. have offered "a let Us stay with them untll we can find a pla to rent, but We can not long be a tax on the hospitality of those who have themselves lost everything exc pt the shelter over their heads, and
 "'.ho must. like us, soon seek other homes,
 We are talking of going down into | tlo ,l f,f some of the big landlords, but it is very hard to think tf working all the rest of our lives without hope of ever having a place of our own again, and if we can 1 nd q little place anywhere that is for sale, if it is only a few acres with notn- ing but a shanty on it, we had both rather buy it than to lent, even if we go , in debt for it; but we do not know of any such at is safe from the overflow of these terrible mines
 ''You must not worry about it too f much, dears; anu you must not come , home until you hear from us again,
 which w.li not be long, for we must do
 something, and that ,,ui kly.
 7 ''You could not help mu h if you , were here until we know what we are } to do, and would robaby be more ev- pense here than there, and we will WI te you gain ust as sool as we de
 termine where we shall go."
 Then she added, in a postscript: 5 You know how mu Il your father 7 and l love you and ow anxious we arc . to have you always with us; iut this we = know can not be, and if the men whom e you arc to marry urge you to speed, e un on you have our consent, and it may l. be best SC"
 e This letter John Parsons mailed al n Phippsburg, little town on the river
 ten miles above the lanc. ng where they !. usually d d their tra ling.
 e Wh n Johnny saw his father prepar s ing to start he began to cry pteously
 and begged him not to leave them to b' If swallowed up by the terrible lood. t The poor oh Id was not only Il cry ous : but actually frightened. lie had sa l propped up his little wheeled cot q, Il the low window and wa, ched the slow
 ly rising flood until it had grown t, @ seem thing of Ii e, fri2htful mon 1t ster. such as he had read about in fair, e stories, only a thousand timhs nor
 horrible. ready to swallow them al e alive; and his pale face grew pa'e 1t still, and his eyes, large with suffering V grew larger yet With fear. and he woul' g not consent that either parent shoul :e remain long out of tEe room, and a nlg t went to sltcp fOlu1nS to III W father's hand only to awaken when d IS was still with screams of fir ght at tn
 things which he saw in his dreams. |, Then John Parsons would arise an m sit by his side and talk to him. and t re h m stories, and soothe him until hi 0. sobs ceased and gradually he droppe ld o i t. sleep again. only to s'e once nor the horr d shap s that peop'ed hs >leel " ing fancy, and awake in an agony ( 8. fear and trembling.
 u And now he be- ged and cred unt ,a his parents fe.,r>d he would go int lu convulsions at h s fathers cav ng, bt 'o there SC, med no other way. for tLe
 knew that the re srhbors were ei. ( II A uSy try ing to sa something from til io general wreck, or absent looking fe some place 10 move to. People wh |