With Axe and Rifle | Page 5

bank. My father, being taller than the negro, was still able, though with difficulty, to keep his feet, and grasping the bridle of the other horse, he followed the advice he had received. Before, however, we had gone far, the wave was upon us. The next instant the waggon was lifted up and jerked violently round. I had until then been holding on, but how it happened I cannot tell, for I felt myself suddenly thrown into the water. I heard my mother's shriek of frantic despair, and my father shouted to her to hold on for her life, while he dragged forward the horses, whose feet almost the next moment must have touched the firm ground.
"Me save him!" cried the black, "go on, massa stranger, go on, all safe now," and the brave fellow, relinquishing his hold of the horse, which he left to my father's guidance, swam off to where I was struggling in the seething water. With one arm he seized me round the waist, and keeping my head above the surface, struck out once more towards the bank. His feet fortunately soon regained the ground, and wading on while he pressed with all his might against the current, he carried me safely in his arms to the bank. Having placed me on the grass, he hastened back to assist my father in dragging up the waggon.
My mother, as may be supposed, had all the time been watching me with unspeakable anxiety, forgetting the danger in which she herself was placed. As the banks sloped very gradually, the horses, by a slight effort, contrived to drag the waggon up to the level ground.
"Blessings rest on your head, my brave man!" exclaimed my mother, addressing the black who had saved me, as she got out of the waggon and rushed to where I lay; then kneeling down, she gazed anxiously into my face.
I had suffered less I believe from immersion than from fear, for I had not for a moment lost my consciousness, nor had I swallowed much water.
"Berry glad to save de little boy, him all right now," answered the black.
"Yes, I believe I'm all right now. Thank you, thank you," I said, getting up.
My mother threw her arms round my neck and burst into tears.
My father wrung the hand of the black, who had hurried back to help him rearrange the harness of the horses. "You have saved the lives of us all, my gallant friend; I thank you from my heart, and should wish to show you my gratitude by any means in my power."
"Oh, massa, him one poor black slave," answered the negro, astonished at being so spoken to by a white man; "him berry glad to save de little boy. Now, massa, you all berry wet, want get dry clo' or catch cold an' die ob de fever."
"Indeed I am most anxious to get my wife and child under the shelter of some roof;" answered my father. "Can you guide us to the nearest house where we can obtain what we require?"
The black thought a moment, and then answered--
"De plantation where I slave not far off; Massa Bracher not at home-- better 'way perhaps, he not always in berry good temper, but de housekeeper, Mammy Coe, she take care ob de lady and de little boy. Yes, we will go dare dough de oberseer make me back feel de lash 'cos I go back without carry de message I was sent on. It can wait, no great ting."
I do not believe that my father heard the last remark of the black, as he was engaged in replacing some of the articles in the waggon which had escaped being washed out, for he answered--
"Yes, by all means, we will drive on to Mr Bracher's plantation. It's not very far off, I hope, for the sooner we can get on dry clothing the better."
My father, as he helped in my mother, and placed me in her arms, threw his own coat, wet as it was, over me, as it served to keep off the wind and was better than nothing.
"What's your name, my good fellow?" he asked of the black.
"Me Diogenes, massa, but de folks call me `Dio'."
"Well, jump in, Dio, and tell me the way I am to drive."
"Straight on den, Massa," said Dio, climbing in at the hinder part of the waggon, "den turn to de right, and den to de lef', and we are at Massa Bracher's."
My father drove on as fast as the horses could go, for although the weather was tolerably warm, my teeth were chattering with cold and fright, and he was anxious, wet as we were, not to expose my mother and me to the night air. By following Dio's directions, in less than ten minutes we reached