Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1898-05-12


washed completely over him, and he
came up coughing violently. swan
close to him, and said, encouragingly:
keep up, old fellow!"
EYES," he replied, with difficulty, "but
can't get my breath"
/ got him to rest one hand on my
shoulder for awhile, until he recovered
himself. Then he struck out again, but
in a rather feeble way. We swan some
distance quite slowly, the great, muddy
| waves dashing over us all the time.
saw with dismay that Harry was again
falling behind. I urged him to renew
his exertions, but he only said, family:
"Pm afraid can't hold out!"
/ helped him all could, at the same
| time imploring him to do his best.
II am doing my BEST" he replied,
bravely.
And a few minutes later we were
from Lewis, who had reached shore.
Harry and l felt our feet touch bottom
| with thrill of intense thankfulness.
| Now that we were safe, we all felt COM
pletely exhausted, and could scarcely
crawl along.
We were fully mile and half be-
| low town. We had no clothes, and the
wind had become quite cold. The near
| est habitation was the hut of an old
negro fisherman, who lived by himself
in the woods not far distant We knew
old Uncle Glenn well, and determined
| to make our way to his cabin.
| After toilsome scramble through
the dark woods, we came upon his hut,
which was brilliantly lit within by a
great wood fire. We knocked at the
door, and old Glenn asked, in fright
ened sort of way:
"Who's dar?"
"Some of the boys, Uncle Glenn"
what TO- some OBJ de boys come roun'
dis time oh de night?"
"Oh, come now, Uncle Glenn, let us
in, and then we will tell YOU"
After considerable preliminary grum-
bling, we heard the old man draw some
thing heavy away from the door, and
the next instant the red freight flashed
out on two-Lewis having modestly re-
| tired within the shadow of the trees
| -shivering, naked bodies, that looked
in the rudy light like a pair of appa-
ritions from a graveyard.
The poor old negro, whose sight was
not very good, started back, with an I'M
earthly yell, and fell over chair in a
paroxysm of terror. He vertically be-
lieved that some evil spirits had come
to take him to everlasting torment.
| Although we were chilled to the
bone, and faint over our exertion, we
could not resist the absurdity of the
situation, and we all began to laugh,
whereupon Old Glenn stopped bowling
and ventured to look at us more closely.
He knew us well, and when he recog-
nized us, he began to laugh too, just as
if he had thought the affair immensely
funny from the first.
"But wha's yo' close?" he asked.
Powerful chilly ebening to be goin'
roun' widout yo' close"
| "We have not got any. At least, they
are on the river bank up above the
town, if the wind has not carried them
away"
Uncle Glenn held , his hands in
dnspeakable amazement. Then he said,
starting toward the door:
"Pll hab 'em fo' you, chillen, in jes'
no time, an den we'll hab SUPPER
"No, no!' said 1. 81 have a better
plan than that. Let is have the sup
per first, and We'll get the clothes after
ward. In the meantime, where is that
suit of clothes l gave you, Glen, about
a month ago? Let us have that, and we
will get warm here and have our sup
per. Then we can decide about our
next move"
Glenn brought out the suit, his only
stock of clothing besides what he had
on, and we appropriated it among us.
Lewis took the vest and an old shirt;
Harry took the coat, which was much
too large for him, and came down to
his knees, and 1 took the pantaloons.
Thus attired, we sat down before the
fire and watched Glenn fry the fish, the
bacon and the potatoes while we talked
over the events of the evening.
AT last supper was ready, and, as
soon as it was disposed of, Uncle Glenn
set out in quest of our clothes. His re-
turn with the much-needed garments
was greeted with prolonged hurrah
from all three of us.
After partly drying them before the
fire, we put them on, babe Uncle Glenn
good night and started for home, which
we reached about nine o'clock.
We were very tired, very lame and not
a little bruised by our terrible battle
with the wind and waves, but then we
had it to say that we had swum the
Mississippi river from shore to shore
in the face of a fearful thunderstorm.
and lived to gain the land in safety
Golden Days.
One Word.