New National Fourth Reader

by Charles J. Barnes; J. Marshall Hawkes

The instant the woman saw the young man, she exclaimed, "O sir, you will do something for me! Make them release me. My boy—my poor boy is drowning, and they will not let me go!"

"It would be madness; she will jump into the river," said one of the men, "and the rapids would dash her to pieces in a moment!"

The youth had scarcely waited for these words; for he remembered the child, a bold little boy four years of age, whose beautiful blue eyes and flaxen ringlets made him a favorite with every one.

He had been accustomed to play in the little inclosure before the cabin; but the gate having been left open, he had stolen out, reached the edge of the bank, and was in the act of looking over, when his mother saw him.

The shriek she uttered only hastened the accident she feared; for the child, frightened at the cry of his mother, lost his balance and fell into the stream, which here went foaming and roaring along among rocks and dangerous rapids.

Several of the men approached the edge of the river, and were on the point of springing in after the boy. But the sight of the sharp rocks crowding the channel, the rush and whirl of the waters, and the want of any knowledge where to look for the child, deterred them, and they gave up the enterprise.

Not so with the noble youth. His first act was to throw off his coat; next to spring to the edge of the bank. Here he stood for a moment, running his eyes rapidly over the scene below, taking in with a glance the different currents and the most dangerous of the rocks, in order to shape his course when in the stream.

He had scarcely formed his conclusion, when he saw in the water a white object, which he knew was the boy's dress; and then he plunged into the wild and roaring rapids.

"Thank God, he will save my child!" cried the mother; "there he is!—O my boy, my darling boy! How could I leave you!"

Every one had rushed to the brink of the precipice and were now following with eager eyes the progress of the youth, as the current bore him onward, like a feather in the power of a hurricane.