Year: 1871

You must remember well the Wiley
flood as plain as though it was but yester-
day, stranger ?" -.,t t..tg


"Did you live in the same place that
you do now?"


My cabin stood out yonder, near the
bank OF the river. You can see the spot
from ths doorway here. There, near
where tlet large elm stands"


sho1d have thought that the water
would have ssept it away, standing as it
did On he 'ow ground"


1t did sweep ttaway, stranger, and my
wife and child with it, If you have time
to hear-it-I don't mind telling you the
story"


PLENTY of time, and nothing would
suit me better. l am always anxious to
hear anything of that night which has
Invested the Notch of the mountains with
such mOurnful interest"


The foregoing conversation took place
one day last summer between myself and
an old settler among the mountains, at
whose cottage had stopped for a glass of
milk, and to rest awhile from my walk.
From one thing concerning the noun
talns to; another we passed, and |
found that there were many incidents
which be remembered of much interest to
the tourists, that had not found their way
into any, y,of the guides or histories of the
mountains which have been put forth. At
last we came to speak of the great freshet
known in all the hill country as the
Wiley flood, and which possesses a
mournful interest for all the dwellers in
that region and then ensued the CONVEX
sation which l have recorded as preface
TO the story. which have reproduced for
the entertainment of my readers:


1T WAS in 1909 ond uo,1p0
man then, and had Just set up in I'll.
world for myself 1 had been married
two years, and my wife had baby boy
of some six months. For the first year
/ had lived with my father over the noun
tains yonder, and then l bought this piece
or intervale, and built a cabin on it, and
commenced a lite for myself We had no
neighbors very near then, the highest be-
ing some three miles down the
river, while across the mountains to faith
er's it was a mile further. Still they
seemed nearest to us, for we saw them
much oftener than any one else-there
never being but few days at time but
some OF, us passed back and forth.


worked hard the year built my cabin,
and by the opening of the next season
had quite a clearing made about it, and
aud Mary, as We sat in the doorway in
the early evening, and gazed about over
our possessions, used to think that we
were on the high road to prosperity, and
looked forward to the time when we
should have one of the best farms lying
about us, that there was in all the noun
famous region. OF one thing we were
sure, and that was, that the soil could not
be beat, and labor only was wanted to
make 1t bring forth abundantly.


The first part of that summer, our
CrOna looked. finalu and r--~---:-- &
an d.bunuanJ. harvest; !. but as the season
went on, a drought set in, which bade fair
to scorch everything green and tender
from the face of the earth. Every day
the sun came up, and went its fiery round
without cloud to keep its fierce rays
from the earth, and when at last August
came in, even the little dew that had fall
en- at night was withheld, and the crops,
deprived of this, no longer strove to live,
but turned yellow, sank upon the earth
and withered away. A large part that
lad planted went in this manner, and our
clearing presented little the appearance
1t had done in the spring-time. Still, If
rain would come soon, there would be
enough saved to carry us through the
winter, and that was more than many
would have.


AS the month went on, there came signs
OF rain, but all of them failed. In the
morning, and through the early part of
the day, dark clouds would gather and
cover the SUBMITS of the mountains, and
we would think that it must rain, but by
noon they would all clear away, without
as much as sending down a few drops
upon the parched earth. "


And so the month wore away until the
morning of the twenty fifth, the one be-
fore that ON which the flood came.


That day had been over the noun
tains to fathers, doing some work for
him, as he was unwell, and promised to
come back the next morning and com
plete the job. The sky, as usual, had
given signs of rain, but we put no conf
dence init, thinking that we should be
disappointed, as we had been all alongi
though an old Indian woman, who dwelt
in lodge on the side of the mountains,
far up the valley, and who CHANGED along,
and paused in the doorway for rest, de-
clared that we should have the greatest
storm within two days that we had ever
known. But we put little confidence in
this for we considered her half crazed,
and had she not been, we thought 1T was
little that she could know of what was TO
come. .1 .-, ....


The next morning when we arose, we
found that it had rained very little
some time during the night but the sky
and clouds did not look so threatening as
they had done for days previous. We had
an early breakfast, aud when 1t was over
set out over the mountain to do my
days work, telling my wife that should
not be back before dark, but should surely
return some time in the evening.


L found, when / reached fathers, that
he was not as well as he had been the day
before, and that mother was much wor-
a IL u a aalav vaAf hat NaTod
nothing, only one Of his attacks to which
he was subject, and that he would soon
be over IT, Mother shook her head, and
hoped that he was right, and ! went out
into fhei deld TO work, and did not come
again To the cabin TIL noon.


Instead Of being better, he was much
worse, and mother declared that l must
eaddle the horse, and go down to Conway
for Doctor Bugly but father would not
hear u this yet so after dinner, l went
back to my work, and in the course of
cnnnlc of hOnrA. my Riater came running