Beadle's Dime Novels No. 35: East and West — page 50: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

50 THE BEAUTY OF WILLARD’S MILL. an’ ’tain’t nateral fur ’em to like people that # kep’ to work.” “Pm sure,” said Constance, “ Minnie is extremely amiable.” “ That’s jist it. Ef she zasn’t so naterally pleasant, she'd be mighty high-notioned. It’s all right, though, an no’ acci- dent. Men’s accidents is God’s designs; an’ Minnie ’|l find _ her place in the world. Yit I can’t help feelin’ a leetle grieved for Nat—he’s a good sort o’ boy—same about as Frank ; an’ v4 igh onto as proud.” Bhs Constance jumped off her log-carriage that evening in ~ = t of the house, her uncle and cousin came out to meet her. = “ Well, boys,” said Mr. Willard, to the team-hands, “ how does the old Missouri look to-day ?” “Looks mighty growly,” answered John. “ She’s on a bender this time, sure,” said Charley. ‘“ Whole trees comin’ down with the grass around their roots, besides a raft o’ driftwood.” Constance, who was prepared to be frightened, looked at her uncle anxiously, but his manner was quiet enough to reassure her. “The first thing you do in the morning,” he said to the men, as they drove across the bridge to the mill, “ you get a good load of brush up from the woods. . I’m afraid those muskrats have made a small hole in the dam—and it won't take long for the water to make it bigger.” “ve been over on the island to-day, setting out my pink- roots,” Minnie remarked. “ If the creek keeps rising as it has to-day, I'm afraid they will get washed up again.” “ Tt is not likely, Minnie, that the water will rise much more. The season’s too early yet for the melting of the snow up in the mountains. There may have been some rains to raise the river for a day or two. I can’t see, though, what makes the creek so high, without any in this neighborhood.” “ There's no sign of rain in the wind that is beginning to blow, right out of the north-west,” Mrs. Willard rejoined. “Well, for my part,” remarked Fletcher Harris, as the fam- ily sat down to the supper-table, “ if the Missouri should get on a ‘ bender’ as Charley says, I hope I may see it. Id like to behold the ‘mad river’ justifying its name, for once. coniclbooks.com