Year: 1869

A MISSISSIPPI NIGHT.


Our home was on the Louisiana O
western shore ofthe great river, and the
mansion was mile or more from til.
negro quarters Of the large plantation.


My husband was absent on business
in New Orleans, and had not returned
when the prolonged rains of tina,
autumn began. As.the rain storm was
far to the north, the Father of Waters
began to rise with more than ordinary
rapidity. From the upper porchcs and
windows of the house | could plainly
see the vast volume Of yellow water as it
widened over the opposite Mississippi
flats, where there was no levee. The
quantities of drift wood coming, the pc
culiar way in which the river seemed to
converge and clear off drift in the mid
die, while the apparently lower margins
were thick with the spoils of the forest,
showed me that it was still swelling to
higher rise, and it was veritable
flood. When the stream is falling the
suck of the lower current draws the
drift to the middle, and keeps the por-
ton next the bank quite clear. But at
this time the main channel was only
marked by the smooth, waveless rush
of the muddy tide, and the ear caught
only that low grnwl of the relentless
giant asking for its ocean bride. l at
once summoned every available person
on the plantation, and made the details
to build fires at intervals on the levee,
so rs to keep watch all night. | also
directed the gangs to he ready with axes
and spades for any break on our front,
or any call for aid from neighboring
plantations. Every precaution seemed
to have been taken which was necessa-
ry for safety. Low places had been cle-
waited, washed places mended, and
points where the current set with great
power had been strengthened 10y felled
timber At one point, just above the
house, which seemed to have been the
old channel, the river made great bend,
and the sul.en water met the obstruct-
ing shore with defiant lash of its VEL
low, CLASSY rollers, and then turned
away to its open course. This point
had been strengthened by double
thickness Of embankmeut and by piles
lined with heavy timber.


Two days went by, and all seemed so
secure that the night fires aud watchers
at every quarter of a mile We're discon-
tinued, and felt serenely confident of
the approval ofniy husband, and that
he would call me his "brave little wife"
for preserving nerve and Judgement to
manage a great plantation in the face of
the highest flood for many years.


One of the planters, three miles above
had not been so careful as we, aud a
small crevasse had been made On his
line. 1t was not dangerous. as it was
on the side of IA straight shoot or.current
of the river and not in the face of one.
Still, we did what was usual, and sent
force to prevent possible danger and
inundation of some of our lands. The
night was bright moonlight one, and
the most Of the house servants had ask ed
and received permission to attend a
dance at the "quarters.' Thus it was
| went to bed with no one i'm the house
save al old colored servant who had
once been my nurse, and was now fifty
years Old. 1t is customary with US to
give titles ofaffection to those faithful
old servants, and we called her Aunt
Sarah.


1t must have been about midnight
that | was awakened by harsh, grind
ing sound. 1t was not loud, but deep
as if some Titanic mill Of the gods had
chosen to grind up a forest for grist.-
arose III my bed and listened, and at
hrst thought my husband come, and it
was the sound OF wheels on the gravel.
But it was too deep and heavy for that:
and then he could not easily land with
the water SO high. Then l began hear
a more gentle sound like the half-sub-
dued wash of warer, or the soft lap of a
tide upon q beach. AS the horn had not
been blown as a signal Of danger, and
could not hear the loud negro chorus,
which betokened battle with the river
concluded that the most Of it was i'm
agination, and lay down again, intend
ing to dismiss the mystery in sleep
Just then heard the feet Of Aunt Sa-
rah Oh the stairs, not as usuol but as if
her shoes had water in them


A. ha mo into ho rnn,,, :,
drip, drip on the carpet. sprang up
| and exclaimed, "What does this mean?'