The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-04-28

now NOISY tne brook Is all OF O sud
den? Why, declare, it's full to tn,
bridge! It's running over. By George
We've got to get ont of this; we're
going to be flooded"
clip
An empty wagon bounded by, tn,
horses blind with fright. A bare
headed rider dashed across the bridge.
The bridge melted away from beneath
the very horses hoofs. Behind the
boy came seething wall of water ten
twenty--thirty feet high.
Gomez
SAMMY spurred Prince up a steer
mountain path. The terrified campers
scrambled after him. They clung te
bushes, they clutched at rocks, up up
up!
The water caught them, but one got
upon rock and pulled the other after
him. The canon was narrowest here
the rush of water mounted high; ii
beat the mountainside, it tore trees,
it wrenched rocks. And SAMMY was
beneath; Prince had stumbled and
fallen, and the cruel wave had passed.
When the storm-washed valley
looked up again at the unchanged
sky, the campers fonnd Sanny's body
jammed into the fssure of q rock.
Just as they had managed to get his
leaden weight down the mountainside,
his mother came running down the
road. She crossed the boiling stream
on fallen pine; she snatched SAMMY
out Of the strangers arms.
"Sanny! SOM"
The men who heard that terrible cry
never forgot it, nor did they forget
the scene that followed.
After that first cry of distress, Mrs.
Lane collected her energies and went
to work. She turned SAMMY face
downward; she raised his body and let
the water flow from his mouth. She
pressed and inflated his lungs; she
bade the campers strip off his wet gar
ments, to slap him, to rub him, to
wrap him in their own coats.
William Sanford came painting
down the canon. He bent over the
boy: "No use, sister, he's dead"
"No!" CALCULATED Sanny's mother.
"You've got brandy. Let me have
it,"
John Lane galloped down the road
as pale as ghost. 'Thank God!"
he cried when he saw his wife. But
when he saw SAMMY, he dropped on
his knees, shuddering from head to
foot.
''The boy is dead! Our boy is
dead!" he groaned.
"John Lane" cried his wife, "take
hold here. Do as I am doing. If
you love SAMMY, take hold and help.
We've got to get the breath back into
his body"
The horse-tamers galloped down
tho road, and stood little way off
with sober faces. They had just
helped to drag from the gulch above
the bodies of the six foolish campers,
who had gone up in the wagon. Tho
horses and the mountain schooner
had been hung by the food twenty
feet up on the mountainside.
The farmer whom SAMMY had
warned from his field came in long
wagon. His wife had sent blankets.
He broughtthem over the stream in his
arm.
"Better let me put him into tho
wagon and carry him nome, Mrs.
Lane" seid the man, with great pity.
Sanny's mother lifted a grim face.
eff you think you came to carry back
a corpse, go home"
For two hours and ten minutes she |
kept them at work. They thought
her mad. Even John Lane relaxed |
bis efforts. But she made him work:
she made him rub, she made him
give his own warmth to the boys cold
body. And at last SAMMY gasped and
shuddered.
His mother cast triumphant look
around, and sank down unnerved,
But when the mon carried SAMMY to
the wagon, she clambered in beside
lim.
"Ma?" murmured SAMMY, inquir.
ngly.
"Hush, SAMMY; it's all right.
You've saved their lives. Ny boy is
! hero"
SAMMY made a sick grimace. III
,eing hero feels like this!--"
He was oil right week later, aud
lad to accept much gratitude and
'ther things.
Seventeen people. had persisted un-
ler that awful food. SAMMY Lane
lad saved ten lives at risk of his own.
The horse, Prince, had been carried
even miles by the food, and there
hey buried him. The bronco. tanners [
oiled a boulder over the horses
rave, and on it one of the campers
7hom SAMMY had saved-he was an
ngraver at Denver-carved the epi. I
aph:
Stanford Lanes Horse, Prince
! Real Hero" with brief notice Of
be event.
IT wish you'd written, The Real {
Iero,'" said SAMMY, with lump in
is throat. t.-Youth's Companion.
~ Substitute For Wood Pulp. l
The New Orleans Times Democrat l
ill join with the other papers OF the Z
ountry in offering . prize to the in