The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1951-01-19


camp about halfway between Deep
Creek and Muddy Creek. He had
pulled the skiff up on the bank
and saved the dress for his mother
and his own new clothes and was
happy to have escaped as light
ly. But when he prepared to build
fire he discovered that his
matches were wet and the heads
had rubbed off and there was no
hope left, he thought.
But he was determined to go on.
He built himself a home similar to
beavers. He had cooked all of
his meal into a big corn pone be-
fore leaving camp that morning.
He hibernated in the rush, sage,
and brush hut he had constructed
until Sunday morning. Then when
he returned to the river expecting
a journey on in the skiff he found
the river frozen solid. He sat
down on the bank and ate the last
morsel of corn pone and wondered
what he could do.
Dick finally decided to try the
ice. He could not break it with
his foot, nor with a club, and he
rejoiced, for if the river and the
other creeks were frozen all the
way, he would be able to make the
trip in two days. He set out eau
tiously trying the ice with each
step. Just when he bagn to feel
that everything was well, and af-
ter more of the river was behind
him than ahead the ice began to
bend beneath his great weight.
And before he could do anything
about it he fell through. The
shore he wanted was about quar-
ter of mile away and he was
down to his arm-pits in the icy
water.
Saved by His Anger
He tried to climb out on the ice,
but it would not bear him up. He
broke the ice with his fists and
elbows in order to move ahead. In
short order his hands were bloody
and numb. He struck his little
finger on the edge of the ice and
nearly cut it off, so that it never
was straight afterwards. And
when he had cut the distance to
go in half he hit deeper water
which rose up to his chin. He de-
cided to give up. He laid his sack
containing the clothes on the ice;
then, he laid his head on his
hands and wondered if it would
do any good to pray. And while
thinking thusly he remembered
Jim Turner and how he was blam-
cable for all of his misery. He
caught mad and began to break
ice like a mad man. He had not
gone far when the bottom began
to shoal up and the ice became
stronger and stronger until it
soon was hard enough to bear his
weight again. He climbed out of
the water and looked back.
Many yards behind Dick saw
the bundle with his mothers
Christmas present in it, and his
new clothes, and they represent
ed his total earnings from making
shingles during the past several
months. A powerful conflict was
thus established in Dicks mind.
That water sure was cold, and he
surely had worked hard for sew
eral months. He decided that he
would just chalk it up to loss
when he thought of his friend Jim
Turner again, and how Jim had
promised to get him home for
Christmas. He jumped back into
the water and retrieved the bun
die.
His First Prayer
When he returned to the shore
that time, Dick found that
Things were vastly different
from what they were two days
before. My clothes were frozen. l
was numb, weak and dizzy. tried
to get up in the woods, but would
stagger and fall. So l decided to
die right there, but when l
thought of the buzzards eating me
managed to scramble around
long enough to make myself
tomb. l cut and piled up the brush
and sage and rushes until l had
pile like a potato bank. l crawled
under it and lay down to die. !
heard old folks say that if you
went to sleep when you were cold
like that you would never wake
up, and l was so sleepy that l
hardly knew what l was doing.
Instead of curling up like cold
person will / stretched out fiat on
my back and crossed my arms,
and then, while / was half asleep
and half awake, / uttered the first
prayer of my life. For even
though / was certain that / was
dying, l thought of my dear mo-
ther and l told God that if it was
His Will, / would like to see her
just once more before / died. That