Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-09-11

why the steamboat looms so high above
them; the river has risen clear to the top
of the wharf and is rising above it! The
Mississippi has broken its levees and con-
nected with the headwaters of the Okal-
aloo by the northern passes! a Sood is
| coming, the lower part of town will be
under water in an hour. Quick, warn
the peoplel Men disperse through the
lower town, awakening the sleeping citi-
zens, the river comes creeping up into
the streets, everybody rushes for the high
land. At last the messengers themselves
must turn from their GRAND OF alarming
the sleepers
HAS everyone been warnedf"
Everyone has been warned" Is the
| reply, and the messengers run for the
high land with the water close to their
heels. They have overlooked one house.
No one has raped on the door of the
white house with the green blinds, the
last house on the street. The river
creeps up, it laps the doorstep of the
white house with green blinds, it crawls
under the door, it climbs the wall, high
er and higher. The sleeping mother and
child hear nothing, they sleep on. There
Is slight jar, the house trembles, is
lifted from its foundations, floats, aud
the river bears it away.
When Bob and Jimmy awoke in the
morning it was to find the rain ceased
and the clouds cleared away, but the
river high above its banks. The knoll
upon which their hut was located was
the only land that rose above the water
as far as they could see. Up and down
the river valley the fiat land was under
water and the dense forest prevented
them from seeing how far the land on
either side of the river was overhowed.
All sorts of things were floating down
the turbid stream. Logs, plarks, hen
coops, barrels, boxes, and now and then
small sheds and haystacks hurried by.
The lower courses of the Okalaloo flowed
through a desolate, marshy region, al
most uninhabited, but there was thick
ly inhabited region of high ground
about its upper waters, and the objects
which the boys saw float by were from
the inhabited district. A few planks
and logs, ard once coop with three
hens in it, foated ashore upon the knoll,
but the swifter current farther out car
ried nearly everything past. The boys
had no boat with which to pursue and
capture the gifts which the bountiful
river offered to whomsoever could take,
but Bob tied together some pieces of rope
and chain, and fastening one end to
tree close to the waters edge and the
other about his waist, waded out far into
the river, secure against the danger of
being swept away by the swift current.
Bob was making the third trip into the
water when Jimmy shouted:
"Here comes a house! Here comes a
housed"
Away up the RI. =: is house floating
swiftly toward them. Bob turns back Ca
land and anxiously watches the house.
"Perhaps it will float to land here,
perhaps it will" says Jimmy.
The house whirls about; the current is
bearing it toward the knoll.
"Look at it; it's coming right here!
Wen have it to live in! See, it's
house with green blinds, the very kind
of house we wished for" and Jimmy
jumps up and down with JOY. The
house floats nearer. What is that fut-
tering in a second-story window! It's
handkerchief; hand holds it; there is
somebody in the house. A woman leans
over the easement and calls to them, but
the roaring river browns her voice. The
house floats nearer. Will it come to
shore; will it run aground in the shallow
water, or will it float on, on, to be over
turned by stump or snag, or drift up
some reach of the Mississippi to be left
by the receding waters stranded in an
impossible swamp, in dreary bayou2
1t touches bottom, it pauses, it pauses
again. Hurrah! it stands stock still,
stuck fast on the river bottom! But the
river rushes furiously against it. Can it
stay where it is, or will the river lift it,
push it. tear it from its refuge and carry
it off again2 Look! it is sliding along
in the mud; now it is aground once
more. There is deep water beyond the
knoll; if the house goes much farther it
will second time be completely at the
mercy eff the Okalaloo. The woman at
the window waves her hands frantically;
little girl appears at her side.
"Oh, Bob, Bob! it's our mother, and
our little sister, and our white house
with green blinds; they've come down
the river to live with us! Oh. oh, oh,
wade out and tie the rope to the house;
hurry up, before it is washed away!"
Bob dashes into the river. The swift
current lifts him off his feet, but he is a
good swimmer. He reaches the house,
passes the rope through the two corner
windows and ties it securely, just as a
final buffet of the river pushes the house