HIGH AND DRY. 173 



sure enuff I shortly heerd the roar o' the water tearin' 

 over them. 



" I now thort I mout as well hev been drownded like 

 a cat in a bag, inside the shanty, as go down the falls. 

 All at wonst the stream quickened, an' then raced an' 

 tore down the valley whur the bluffs closed up agin each 

 other. I thort I noticed a tree now an' agin leanin' out 

 over the water from the rocks, which wur perpendic'lar, 

 an' cudn't be climbed nohow. But I knew ef I hitched 

 my claws to a limb, I'd be able to haul myself up an' git 

 clur o' the bisness somehow. 



" I guess, boyees, that Providence meant me to live 

 an' be Christianized, an' not to go under while I wur 

 sich an all-fired pagan. The shanty wur 'ithin twenty 

 yards o' the brink o' the fall, when it hit agin a rock 

 that stuck up over water, an' wheeled round torst the 

 bank, sweepin' me under the branches o' a tree, an' 

 a'most tearin' me from my hold. You bet, I laid my 

 hands about me, an' wur soon high an' dry enuff. 



"I hed to stay thur till mornin', though, seem' as 

 thur warn't light to climb the bluffs. Wai, to make a 

 long story short, I got out o' the fix at last ; an' arter 

 the flood wur gone, I went to the spot whur I'd built 

 the shanty, hopin' I mout find a leetle o' my plunder 

 lyin' about. 



" When I got thur, you bet, I stared ! Thur wur the 

 legs o' the old shanty standin' four feet out o' ground ; 

 an', boyees, what mazed this coon most of all, each o' 

 'em had been cut across, jest as neat as ef 'twur done 



