A1T& PRE8J5&T. *7»
meekly ; I would subsist entirely on tracts; I would invade the rum
shop and warn the drunkard—and finally, if I escaped the fete of
those who early become too good to live, I would go for a missionary.
The storm subsided toward daybreak, and I dozed gradually to
sleep with a sense of obligation to Lem Hackett for going to eternal
suffering in that abrupt way, and thus preventing a far more dreadful
disaster—my own loss.
But when I rose refreshed, by and by, and found that those other
boys were still alive, I had a dftrn sense that perhaps the whole thing
was a false alarm; that the entire turmoil had been on Lean's account
and nobody's else. The world looked so bright and safe that there
did not seem to be any real occasion to turn over a new leaf, I was
a little subdued, during that day, and perhaps the next; after that,
my purpose of reforming slowly dropped out of my mind, and I had
a peaceful, comfortable time again, until the next storm.
That storm came about three weeks later; and it was the most
unaccountable one, to me, that I had ever experienced ; for on the
afternoon of that day, * Dutchy' was drowned. Dutehy belonged to
our Sunday-school. He was a German lad who did not know enough
to come in out of the rain; but he was exasperatingly good, and had
a prodigious memory. One Sunday be made himself the envy of all
the youth and the talk of all the admiring village, by reciting three
thousand verses of Scripture without missing a word ; then he went
off the very next day and got drowned.
Circumstances gave to his death a peculiar impreesivenesfi- We
were all bathing in a muddy creek which had a deep hole in it, aj*d
in this hole the coopers had sunk a pile of green hickory boop poles
to soak, some twelve feet under water. We were diving and * seeing
who could stay under longest,' We managed to remain down by
holding on to the hoop poles. Dutchy made such a poor success of
it that he was hailed with laughter and derision every time his head
appeared above water. At last he seemed hurt with the taunts, and
begged us to stand still on the bank ood be fair with, him sad give
hiTn an honest count—* be friendly and kind just this oaee, and sot
miscount for the sake of having the fun of laughing at him/
Treacherous winks were exchanged, and all said * All right, Dwtehy—
go ahead, well play fair.*