Year: 1870

You must remember well the Wiley
flood as plain as though it was but yester-
day, stranger 70


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


NY cabin stood out yonder, near the
bank Of the river. You can see the spot
from the doorway here. There, near
where that large elm stands"


/ should have thought that the water
would have swept it away, standing as it
did on the low ground"


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


"Plenty of time, and nothing would
suit me better. am always anxious to
hear anything of that night which has
Invested the Notch of the mountains with
such mournfu 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 glass of
milk, and to rest awhile from my walk.
From one thing concerning the noun
tains TO another We passed, and
found that there were many incidents
which he remembered of much interest to
the tourists, that had not found their way
into any Of the guides or histories of the
mountains which have been put forth. At
last we came to speak of the great heshet
known in all the hill country as the
Wiley food, and which possesses q
mournful interest for all the dwellers in
that region and then ensued the conver-
sation which have recorded as preface
to the story which have reproduced for
the entertainment of my readers:


It was in 1926, and I was a young
man then, and had Just set up In the
world for myself I had been married
two years, and my wife had baby boy
of some six months. For the first year
I had lived with my father over the noun
tains yonder, and then bought this piece
of intervale, and built cabin on it, and
commenced life for myself We had no
neighbofs very near then, the highest be-
ing some three miles down the
river, while across the mountains to faith
er's it was q mile further. Still they
seemed nearest to us, for we saw them
never being but few days at time but
some of as passed back and forth.


worked hard the year I built my cabin,
and BY the opening of the next season
had quite a clearing made about it, and
and 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
e.AOO4A AoNO Ouc VI bno Docb IAIHlb 1yAu6
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 It bring forth abundant1y.


The first part OF that summer, our
crops looked finely, and gave promise of
an abundant harvest; but as the season
went on, q 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
had planted went in this manner, and our
clearing presented little the appearance
it 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 few drops
upon the parched earth.


And so the month wore away until the
morning of the twenty fifth, the one be-
lore 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 pack the next morning and com