"WE are going to have a change of weather, I reckon," Hiram said one afternoon as they were drifting down the stream during their second voyage. "You have been lucky since we started, but we are going to have a change at last; and I can tell you when it blows here it"s a caution.
They have been having a lot of rain up the country, for the river has been rising regular for the last ten days. We had best make fast for the night, and the sooner we does it the better, for the wind is getting up fast and the rain is just a-going to begin."
In a quarter of an hour the boat was moored to a great tree at the lower end of an island.
"We shall be snug here," he said, "and out of the way of the drift that will be coming down presently. You can turn in and take a long spell of sleep to-night, for sometimes those storms last for days when they come on this time of year, and you will see there will be a sea on that the boat could hardly live in. I wish we had stopped two hours ago; there was a creek where we could have run her in and been snug all through it, but I didn"t think it was coming up so quick, and it"s too far on to the next place to risk it; however, I expect we shall do very well here."
In another half-hour the gale burst upon them furiously, and Frank congratulated himself that the boat was snugly moored. The thick muddy water of the river was speedily lashed into angry waves; the rain came down in torrents, and although the left-hand bank was but a quarter of a mile distant it was soon lost to view. Frank was glad to leave the deck and crawl into the little cabin, and sit down to a hot meal which the negro cook had prepared.
"Better here than outside, my lad," Hiram said. "I can go as wet as any man if need be, but I like to keep a dry jacket when I can. The wind is just howling outside. I reckon this is going to be a bigger storm nor ordinary, and I have seen some biggish storms on the Mississippi too. I have had some narrer escapes of it, I can tell you, special in the days before there was nary a tug on the river, and we had to row or pole all the way up; besides there ain"t so many trees brought down as there used to be in a flood, seeing as the country is getting more and more cleared every day.
"I reckon the time will come when you will be able to go up either the Mississippi or Missouri to the upper waters without seeing a tree drifting down, and when there won"t be a snag in their beds. I mind the time when the snags were ten times worse than they is now. I mind once we ran on one of the darned things in pretty nigh as wild a night as this is going to be. I had six hands along with me, and we wanted to get down, "cause we knew the old man would have a cargo ready for us, and we wanted a run of a day or two on sh.o.r.e at Orleans before we started up again, so we held on. The wind was higher than we reckoned on, and we was just saying we should have done better to tie up, when there was a crash. I thought at first that she would have gone over with the shock, but she didn"t--not that it would have made much odds, for there was a snag through her bottom, and the water pouring in like a sluice. It was darkish, but we could make out there was some trees a boat"s-length or two ahead which had been caught as they rolled down by another snag, and hung there. The boat didn"t float more than a minute after she struck, and then we were all in the river, those who couldn"t swim gripping hold of the oars and poles; half a minute and we were all clinging to the boughs, and hoisting ourselves as well as might be clear of the water.
"I tell you, lad, that was a night. It wasn"t that we was drenched to the skin with the rain pouring down, and the wind cutting through us--that kind of thing comes natural to a boatman--but it was the oncertainty of the thing. The trees moved and swayed with the waves and current; the flood we knew was rising still, and any moment they might break away from the snag and go whirling along, over and over, down the river. Even if they didn"t break away of theirselves, another tree might drive down on us, and if it did, the chances was strong as the hull affair would break loose.
"All that night and all next day we hung on, and then the wind went down a bit, and a n.i.g.g.e.r who had made us out from the sh.o.r.e came off in a dug-out and took us ash.o.r.e in two trips. That war a close shave. The wind was northerly and bitter cold, and I don"t believe as we could have hung on another night more nor that. Next morning, when we turned out from the n.i.g.g.e.r"s hut to have a look round, there wasn"t no sign of them thar trees, they had just gone down the river in the night. Yes, I have had a good many narrow shaves of it, but I do think as that war the narrowest."
"Well, I am heartily glad," Frank said, "that we are tied safely up, out of the way of floating trees, snags, or anything of the kind. I always like hearing the wind when I am snug, and I shall sleep sound knowing that I am not going to hear your shout of "Watch on deck" in my ear."
In spite of the howling of the gale Frank slept soundly. But he could scarcely believe that it was broad daylight when he awoke; the light was dim and leaden, and when he went out from the cabin he was startled at the aspect of the river. The waves had risen until it resembled an angry sea, the yellow ma.s.ses of water being tipped with foam; the clouds hung so low that they almost touched the top of the trees; the rain was still falling, and the drops almost hurt from the violence with which they were driven by the wind. The river had risen considerably during the night, and the lower end of the island was already submerged; boughs of trees and driftwood were hurrying along with the stream, and more than one great tree pa.s.sed, now lifting an arm high in the air, now almost hidden in the waves, as it turned over and over in its rapid course.
Frank felt glad indeed that the boat lay in comparatively sheltered waters, though even here the swell caused her at times to roll violently.
"What do you think of it, lad?" Hiram, who had risen some time before Frank, asked.
"It is a wonderfully wild scene," Frank said enthusiastically, "a grand scene! I should not have had an idea that such a sea could have got up on any river. Look at that great tree rolling down, it looks as if it was wrestling for life."
"The wrestle is over, lad, there ain"t no more life for that tree; it will just drift along till it either catches on a sandbank and settles down as a snag, or it will drift down to the mouth of the Mississippi, and may be help to choke up some of the shallow channels, or it may chance to strike the deep channel, and go away right out into the Gulf of Florida, and then the barnacles will get hold of it, and it will drift and drift till at last it will get heavier than the water, and then down it will go to the bottom and lie there till there ain"t no more left of it. No, lad, there ain"t no more life for that tree."
"May be it will wash ash.o.r.e near the city, or some plantation," Frank said, "and be hauled up and cut into timber, or perhaps into firewood.
After all, the useful life of a tree begins with its fall."
"Right you are, lad; yes, that might happen, and I am glad you put it in my mind, for somehow I have always had a sorter pity for a tree when I see it sweeping down in a flood like this. Somehow it"s like looking at a drowned man; but, as you say, there"s a chance of its getting through it and coming to be of use after all, and what can a tree wish better than that? But we had best be hauling the boat up to the tree and shifting the rope up the trunk a bit; it"s just level with the water now, and was nigh eight feet above when we tied it yesterday. I tell you if this goes on there will be some big floods, for it will try the levees, and if they go there ain"t no saying what damage may be done in the plantations."
All day the wind blew with unabated fury, and when evening came on Frank thought that it was increasing rather than diminishing in force.
"Let"s have a gla.s.s of grog and tumble in, my lad," Hiram said, "it gives one the dismals to listen to the wind." They had scarcely wrapped themselves in their blankets when the boat swayed as if struck by an even stronger blast than usual; then there was a sudden crash, which rose even above the howling of the gale.
"What"s that?" Frank exclaimed, sitting up.
"It"s the tree," Hiram began; but while the words were in his mouth there was a shock and a crash, the roof of the little cabin was stove in, and the boat heeled over until they thought it was going to capsize.
Frank was thrown on to the floor with the violence of the shock, but speedily gained his feet.
"What has happened?" he exclaimed.
"The tree has gone," Hiram said; "I have been looking at it all the afternoon, but I didn"t want to scare you by telling you as I thought it might go. It"s lucky it didn"t fall directly on us, or it would have knocked the boat into pieces. The door is jammed. Get hold of that hatchet, lad, and make a shift to get your head out to look round and see what we are doing. Do you hear them n.i.g.g.e.rs holloaing like so many tom-cats? What good do they suppose that will do?"
"I can"t see anything," Frank said when he looked out; "it"s pitch dark.
I will make this hole a bit bigger, and then I will take the lantern and crawl forward and see what has become of the blacks. I am afraid the tree has stove the boat in: look at the water coming up through the float-boards."
"Ay, I expect she is smashed somewhere; it could hardly be otherwise; I reckon this is going to be about as bad a job as the one I was telling you about. Here, lad, put this bottle of rum into your jacket and this loaf of bread; I will take this here chunk of cold beef; like enough we may want "em afore we are done."
When Frank had enlarged the hole sufficiently to allow his body to pa.s.s through, he put the lantern through and then crawled out. He was in a tangle of branches and leaves. The head-rope was a long one; the tree had fallen directly towards them, and the boat was, as far as Frank could see, wedged in between the branches, which forked some forty feet above the roots; a cross branch had stove in the cabin top, and another rested across the scuttle of the cabin used by the negroes.
"Hand me the axe, sharp, Hiram," he said; "the n.i.g.g.e.rs can"t get out, and our bow isn"t a foot out of water."
Hiram handed up the axe, seized another, and with a great effort squeezed himself through the hole and joined Frank in the fore-part of the boat, which was waist-deep in water.
"Never mind the branch, lad, that will take too long to cut through, and another two or three minutes will do their business; here, rip off two or three of those planks, that will be the quickest way."
Although impeded in their work by the network of boughs, they speedily got off two or three planks and hauled up the frightened negroes. It was but just in time, for there were but a few inches between the water and the top of the low cabin.
"Shut your mouths and drop that howling," Hiram said, "and grip hold of the tree; the boat will sink under our feet in another minute. Stick to your lantern, lad, a light is a comfort anyhow; I"ll fetch another from the cabin, and some candles; I know just where they are, and can feel them in the water."
In a minute he rejoined Frank, who was sitting astride of one of the branches.
"That"s a bit of luck," he said; "the candles are dry. There ain"t more than two feet of water in her aft."
Three or four minutes pa.s.sed, and the boat still lay beneath their feet, sinking, apparently, no lower. "I will look round again," Hiram said; "it seems to me as she has got jammed, and won"t go any lower."
Examining the boat, he found that it was so; she was so completely wedged among the branches that she could sink no lower.
"It"s all right," he said joyously. "Jump down, all of you, and lend a hand and unreeve the halliards from the mast and bind her as tight as you can to the branches; pa.s.s the ropes under the thwarts. Make haste before she shakes herself free." For the tree, now well clear of the shelter of the land, was swaying heavily.
The work was soon done, and the boat securely fastened to the tree.
"How is it the tree lies steady without rolling over and over, Hiram?"
Frank asked, after they paused on the completion of the work.
"I reckon it"s the boat as keeps it steady, lad. As long as she lies here she is no weight, but she would be a big weight to lift out of water, and I reckon she keeps the whole affair steady. It couldn"t be better if we had planned it. All these boughs break the force of the waves, and keep off a good bit of the wind too; we ain"t going to do badly after all."
"Pete, get me that half-bottle of rum from my locker and a tin mug. That is right. Now here is a good strong tot each for you to make your faces black again; you were white with fear when we got you out of that cabin, and I don"t blame you; I should have been in just as bad a fright myself if I had been there, though I shouldn"t have made such a noise over it.
Still, one can"t expect men of one colour to have the same ways as those of another, and I am bound to say that if the boat had gone down your boss would have lost four good pieces of property. Feel more comfortable--eh?"
The negroes grinned a.s.sent. Easily cast down, their spirits were as easily raised, and seeing that the white men appeared to consider that there was no urgent danger, they soon plucked up their courage.
"I think," Frank said, "the best thing will be to manage to get the cabin door open. We can put a tarpaulin over the hole in the roof, and we shall then have a shelter we can go into; the water is not over the lockers, but I shouldn"t like to go in until we get the door open. If this tree did take it into its head to turn round, it would be awkward if there were two or three of us in there, with only that hole to scramble through."
"You are about right, lad; it will be a sight more comfortable than sitting here, for what with the rain and the splashing up of this broken water one might as well be under a pump."
The axes were called into requisition again, for the door was jammed too firmly to be moved.
"Chop it up, and shove the pieces under the tarpaulin, Sam; they will get a bit drier there, and we may want them for a fire presently; there is no saying how long we may be in this here floating forest. That"s right. Now, hang one of them lanterns up in the cabin. That"s not so bad. Now, lad, our clothes-bags are all right on these hooks. I am just going to rig myself up in a dry shirt and jacket, and advise you to do the same; we may as well have the upper half dry if we must be wet below."
Frank was glad to follow Hiram"s example, and a dry flannel shirt made him feel thoroughly warm and comfortable. He handed a shirt to each of the negroes, and the whole party, cl.u.s.tered in the little cabin, were soon comparatively warm and cheerful, in spite of the water, which came up to their knees, and when the boat rose on a wave, swashed up over the locker on which they were sitting. A supply of dry tobacco and some pipes were produced by Hiram, and the little cabin was soon thick with smoke.
"Taking it altogether," Hiram said, "I regard this as about the queerest sarc.u.mstance that ever happened to me; it was just a thousand to one that tree would have smashed us up and sunk us then and thar. It was another thousand to one that when we were staved in we shouldn"t have got fixed so that the boat couldn"t sink; if any one had told it me as a yarn I should not have believed it."
"It has indeed been a wonderful escape," Frank said, "and I think now that we should be ungrateful indeed if every one of us did not fervently thank G.o.d for having preserved us."