water should reach the ground floor, nor to “Get aboard, Joe,” said Mr. Hanford, as he stow away any articles which their little boat went to a corner of the cottage to get a pair would be unable to carry; such things, there- of oars. Joe did as directed, but no sooner had fore, as could not be taken away, were hung he done so, than it was discovered that the upon pegs against the walls, and the party was hide-rope, by which the boat had been fastened, reduced to the alternative of trusting to the had, by some means, been cast loose; the boat skiff at any moment when the flood should swung round, and being struck by the current, reach the apartment. The two children had was wafted rapidly away. The shout of the been soothed to sleep by the solicitous care of youth, and the sudden shriek from Mrs. Hanthe mother, but these were the only ones who ford, brought the husband to the door, only in ventured to seek repose. The brave youth | time to see a faint glimpse of the fast receding who had volunteered to share their dangers, boat, bearing with it all that was dear to him had thrown off his saturated coat, and placed on earth. It was not a moment for reflection, himself near the fire to dry his remaining gar- -he sprang into the flood, and swam with the ments. Ever and anon, the husband would same current that bore them away. But they approach the door, in the vain hope of finding were already lost in the gloom far beyond the a cessation of the rise; but the flood was still reach of his sight, he heard their voices howswelling, and each examination showed its ever, and swam with almost superhuman effort nearer and rapid approach. About midnight, to overtake them. The course on which the the rain ceased falling, but the wind continued current carried them was not towards, but dito blow with much force, and the darkness rectly from the river; the flood having reached continued. Another examination revealed the such a height as to form numerous new chanlong-expected and dreaded event the water nels or outlets in various directions, one of them was at the sill of the cottage, and came trick- | had taken the skiff on its bosom, and bore it in ling across the floor! To depart or to delay, the direction of the very spot which they wished seemed alike fruitful of danger; destruction to reach. Hanford was therefore in hopes that seemed lying on either hand; but a dawn of they would succeed in effecting a landing; but light passed across the sky, indicative of a when he had reached the place he heard breaking up of the clouds ;-and in that single their voices far beyond, and being himself ray, each heart seemed to have imbibed a new nearly exhausted, was fain to give up the purexistence. They felt, for the moment, that the suit and seek for personal safety while it was Being to whom their prayers had been offered yet within his reach. He accordingly made up, had not been wholly deaf to their suppli- for the shore, which he reached; then shoutcations; they had hope. Again they looked | ing to announce his safety, he was answered toward the heavens; again the light of the by the lad, who told him, in confiding terms, moon, which had risen, forced its way faintly to make himself easy, for he would take good through the floating masses of heavy vapor care of the boat and its company. which overhung them; the storm was evi-l “That's a nice lad,” murmured Hanford, as dently giving way, and with light to guide he heard the youth sootking the fears of those them, they cared not for the flood or the winds. in his charge. “A nice lad; an' ef I'd a girl of "The spot which they desired to reach was not the size for him, he'd be the one 'ud make her more than a hundred yards from the cottage, a good husband, -God give him strength for and preparations were at once made to depart. this turn, and land 'em all safely.”—In this The skiff was already at the door, under the mood he sat down upon a stone ledge to relea of the house, and Hanford and the lad pro- cover his own strength, and be ready to start ceeded to deposit on board such movables as in pursuit, as soon as light, sufficient to enable had been selected, while Mrs. Hanford pre- him to distinguish between land and water, pared her children and herself for their voy- should appear. He listened with intense anxage. The rush of the current against the rear iety to the voices of the party, as they grew of the frail building also told plainly that fainter and fainter in the distance, until at last longer delay would be perilous, and as the light the cheering “hallo” of the lad was lost in the continued to increase, no time was lost. In sound of the rushing waters, and he remained a few minutes, the mother, with her children, alone, in the vast solitude of night in the wil. were placed beside their chattels, in the boat. derness. “They're gone!” said Hanford, musThe load was a heavy one for so small a bark, ingly, “they're gone, and that boy hasn't so yet the freight was not completed.

| much as a shingle to steer with, and the flood's

does !!

full of drift, and there's eddies and shoals—if other, pointing to the vast sheet of water he should strike a shoal now, and capsize! sweeping before them, urged that to proceed the skiff's but an egg-shell at the best, and wi' further before daylight would be an act of four living, human souls aboard! and its so madness, that would perhaps cost the lives of dark too! God grant the stream take them some, or it might be, all of them, and that too, not to the Pine-gulch—they are all lost if it without the possibility of lending any assis

tance to their friends. If evil is to come to The Pine-gulch, so called, was a deep ravine them this night,” said he, “it has come ere or chasm, about two miles south-west of Han- now, and it is out of our way to help it. Wait ford's hut, extended through the hills a dis- 'till we can see our footing, and then, with tance of half a mile, and bore the appearance God's blessing, we'll find 'em safe.” This of having been formed by a violent convulsion was agreed to; but as the clouds broke away, of the earth at some former period. The depth and the light of the moon flitted at intervals of the chasm, at its upper, or eastern end, was through to the earth, their prospect seemed about fifty feet, which gradually lessened as more and more hopeless and dreary. As far the surface of the earth declined westward. as the sight could discover, all below them was Its width varied from twenty to seventy-five a vast lake, studded here and there with islands feet, and its rocky sides were studded with small formed by the hilly nature of the country, and pines and shrubbegy, which found sustenance freighted with drifting logs and trees. Numin the small portions of earth that were carried bers of wild deer and other animals, driven by by the rains and lodged in the numerous cre- the flood from their accustomed haunts, were vices and fissures. Into this chasm the waters seeking safety on the high grounds; there of the flood were at that moment pouring— was scarce a hillock above water that had not forming a cataract second only to that of the more or less of these transient tenants, and as Niagara, and the current which bore the little the day dawned, they were seen moving in all skiff with its precious freight was riding swiftly directions, some over the land, and others towards it. Fortunate was it for all parties swimming for their lives through the rapid they knew not the danger which threatened and whirling eddies. them. The youth, on whose energy all seemed The prospect of our friends was most cheerto depend, was powerless; blinded by the dark less. The route they wished to pursue in search ness and without even a setting-pole, he could of the boat was cut off, and rendered utterly not change the direction of his little vessel an impassable, so that a circuit of several miles inch from the course which the stream pursued, on foot seemed inevitable, during which it was and all relied on the hope that chance might quite probable they might pass the object of throw them within reach of some jutting pro- their search, and be still left in uncertainty as montory or even the branch of an overhanging to their fate. No other alternative appeared, tree, to which they might cling and effect a and they set forth, not, however, until they landing. To have known their danger would had discovered that the cottage of Hanford had therefore have been but the signal of despair. become a part of the general wreck; the spot

Hanford had remained at the spot where we it had occupied a few hours before, was vacant left him, about half an hour, in a state of fe- | when the day dawned, and the old oak stood verish anxiety, watching the gradual breaking alone, spreading his wide branches above the of the clouds, and the slow approach of light, waste of waters. when he was aroused by another call from the The sun was high in the heavens; the wind direction of the woods. His two neighbors, had subsided to a perfect calm, and save a few after the danger to their own families and ha- misty remnants hanging still about the loftiest bitations had passed, had come forth to his peaks of the Alleghanies, not a cloud was visiAssistance, and never was the voice of man ble, when the three mountaineers, wearied, more welcome. Their call was answered with wet, and almost exhausted with apprehension, a hearty hallo, and in a few moments the three arrived near the head of the “ Pine-gulch," on were together. Hanford related in few the eastern side. Not a spot of ground above words the events of the night, and alarm for water had escaped their scrutiny, during their the safety of the party in the boat became tedious journey of some ten miles; sometimes general. The father of the youth, in the wading, sometimes swimming, and sometimes intensity of his fears, proposed to depart im- clambering over rocks and precipices; but as mediately in search of the lost ones ; but the yet not a trane of the lost party had they dis

covered. The particular current that bore the from this place, by like means, they were eva.
skiff away was carefully and easily traced, by bled to ascend directly beneath the spot whern
the drift-wood that followed its course, and to the little group were perched, almost to them.
their dismay, they discovered that it led di- | This was done, yet until they had reached with-
rectly toward the "Gulch." This they had | in some twelve or fifteen feet, they had not
followed, and when they had almost reached been seen by the party above. There Hanford
the beetling brink, and heard the roar of the saw all his precious ones, alive, and so far safe,
falling cataract, with yet no sign or trace of and his neighbor saw the athletic form of his
their friends-hope forsook them, and the brave boy, all lingering, as it were, upon the
conviction that they had been borne over the verge of death, and yet, not only living, but
precipice, forced itself, with agonizing effect, within the reach of rescue. To describe the
upon their minds. Hanford, half frantic, outburst of joy from the stranded party, on
raved and wept, yet his longing eyes, drowned discovering the approach of the deliverers, is
as they were with tears, roved restlessly in impossible. Mrs. Hanford wept tears of thank-
every direction to which hope pointed with a fulness. Young Joe laughed like a maniac,
possibility of finding the dear objects of his and little Annie joined her mother, while the
heart. Suddenly he paused, and with a babe, “Bobby,” shrieked and clapped his hands
glare, gazed intently upon a small tuft of earth with glee.
which hung above the precipice, in the very The lost were found, but they were not yet
midst of the torrent. His penetrating look delivered from danger. This task was yet to
had discerned a moving object there, and he be accomplished. The skiff had been carried
gazed in trembling fear for a further revela- over the fall, and was seen half way down the
tion of new-born hope. It moved again—it crag, where it was caught in its descent, and
was a human figure, and with a half-suffocated so securely jammed among the rocks that the
shriek, pointing at the same instant to the whole force of the torrent was not sufficient
spot, he exclaimed, “ There !-there !—they are to displace it. The only plan of relief, there-
there.

fore, that presented itself, was to bring the
They were indeed there. The form that he family down from their critical position, into
had seen was that of the youth, who had raised the gulch, and again place them on terra firma,
himself upon the stump of an old pine tree, by clambering up the steep, where Hanford
which had hung for half a century over the and his friends had descended. This was
abyss, and, with a rock or two, formed a nu- finally accomplished, after great labor, and the
cleus, around which a little mound of earth building of two or three rude bridges; and
bad gathered. The youth was looking about Jared Hanford once more clasped in safety to
intently, apparently seeking some mode of his heart, the beloved sharers of his rugged
escape from their perilous position. To at- life. In that moment of pure joy, all else, save
tempt to reach them by crossing the stream the felicity of re-union, was forgotten; their
above the fall, would have been an act involv- | losses were unthought of, and the memory of
ing almost certain death; for no man could past privations and dangers were absorbed in
stem the current, and a single false movement an overpowering sense of thankfulness to the
or miscalculation of the swimmer, would send protecting hand, that had brought them again
him headlong down the cataract. The party together.
shouted loudly to attract their attention, but The brave-hearted Joe proceeded to relatex
in vain ; the incessant roar of the falling sheet in terms far more circumstantially than my
of water drowned their voices; and it was long readers would like to peruse, the chances of
before they could determine what course to their perilous voyage. As soon as he found
pursue. At length, Hanford suggested that, | that they were fairly adrift and at the mercy
as they could not reach them from above, they of the flood, he proceeded to prepare for that
must endeavor to do so from below; accor- which appeared to him the only danger to be
dingly, by moving further down, and approach- apprehended, viz., "an upset.” He saw the
ing the edge of the gulch, they discovered that mother and children grouped together in as
a footing might be obtained, so as to reach small a compass as could be possibly acquired,
within a few feet of the spot, without danger. and then gave directions to Mrs. Hanford, in
The rough, rocky precipice, and shrubbery case they should go over, to hold fast to Bobby
afforded the means of descending to a part of with one hand and the boat with the other,
the chasm which the flood did not reach, and while he “sounded bottom," and took care of

Annie; and in case he could not find bottom, in water, and which way to go to find a drier it was agreed that they should hold on to the spot I couldn't tell. Hows'ever, I thought boat together, and trust to providence for de best not to stan’ there all night, so I told the liverance. After giving these directions, he folks to keep still a minit, and I'd feel round seated himself in the group with little Annie and take a prospect. I wasn't long a findin' between his feet, and both hands employed, there was deep water on both sides of me, so reaching from side to side, in hopes of falling I tried the middle, and found which way the in with some object to seize upon. Occasion- land lay, but we hadn't gone more than twenty ally they were borne with the speed of the steps when I herd that etarnal fall pourin' wind down a gentle declivity, and again car- over there. Then I was scart—I knew where ried noiselessly away in what appeared to be I was then ; and tho’ we wasn't quite out of an eddy, or over a level plain. They knew water yet, I didn't dare go a step furder till when they were passing a wood patch, by the daylight. And then we wasn't much better rushing sound of the wind amid the trees, but off; the old stump was the only thing out of nothing could be seen. Joe said he “ couldn't water, and it looked mighty, ticklish gettin' to tell how long they went on in this way, but it it, but I was afraid we'd all catch our death in seemed to him like a week since he left neigh- the water, so I tried it and found it was solid. bor Hanford's cottage, when all 'twonst, when and there we all staid till you come." they was sailin' along smooth as clover, bump, Hanford and his family found a present and over went the old skiff, spillin' 'em all out shelter in the cottage of their neighbor, Barin shoal water."

nard Bradley, the blacksmith; and ten years “Yes," said Mrs. Hanford, and such a scream after the events of that frightful night in Sepas I and Annie give then !"

tember, Joe Bradley, the thriftiest farmer of “I didn't hear no scream,” said Joe; "all I western Pennsylvania was made the happiest know is, that when I found we was overboard man on earth, (as all bridegrooms are,) by where there was bottom, I clinched both on leading to the altar of Hymen the person of ye, and let the skiff look out for herself.” the once "little Annie,” but now a full blown

"And a mighty bad look she made of it,” rose of a woman, with a dowry equal to his interposed his father. If she hadn't thrown own estate. Joe never forgot the fortitude you out where she did! You " A shud- with which his infant charge bore the vicissider ran through the whole party, as Joe inter-tudes of that perilous voyage, and somehow, rupted him.

from that time forward she became his especial "But she did throw us out there, father; | favorite. If she was not then, as in the words thank her for that. She couldn't 'a done better of her father, of the size for him," she became if she'd had eyes and hands to do with. Well, so in good time, and, if history tells the truth, there we was,” continued the lad, “knee deep he has, indeed, “ made her a good husband."

THE TEST.

BY THE REV. RALPH HOYT.

And when that the trial is come, and all

Thy stateliest fancyings fade and fall;
When the car of envy hath heard thy fame,

And the bligbt of slander is on thy naine ;
When fortune's propitious breezes fail,

And adversity shatters thy silken sail,
And roaring surges thy bark o'erwhelm,

If thou hast a friend, he will sieze the helm.

In thy early prime, when thy heart is gay,

And a morry voice calleth, -up! away! Away, and partake of the choicest things

The world in its folly around thee flings; Pluck every flower of ill delight

That poisons the heart, and deceives the sight; If thou hast a friend, who a friend would prove,

He will chide thy course, though he lose thy love. When the sign of manhood comes on thy brow,

And ambition pilots thy daring prow; Though thy way be over the smoothest sea,

And the prize of fame seemeth just a-lee, Or thy eager hand be already laid

On the glorious goal thy desires have made ; When thou dreamest not of an hour of care,

True friendship will counsel thee still, prepare !

When hope's last sun is adown the west,

And shadows darken thy lonely breast;
When the bursting bosom can hold no more,

And the fount of sorrow is running o'er;
And the writhing heart, in its burning cell,

Conceives a thought it were sin to tell;
Oh, then, for the true and enduring love,

And the mightiest Friend, look,-look above !

NIGHT HUNTING IN ELK COUNTY.

BY JOHN OF YORK

The sun was within an hour's travel of the every city boy kin pink a buck like old longwestern horizon, when Tom W- Hank S shot there, with the paddle." Dill G-4, and Brooks, started from Ridgway “Well, a quart that I kill the first critter for the Five Mile Lick, in a canoe, not over to-night; mind, I kill one before you do; if nineteen feet long, and so narrow and rocky neither kills, it's a draw bet.” that all had to sit quietly on the bottom of the The bet was made, and silence grew over frail vessel, or run a pretty sure chance of being the party. We had just passed Mill Creek upset. On each side of the Clarion, (or Stump Mouth, when something resembling footsteps Creek, or Big Toby- the stream has three were heard upon the bank above, but some names,) high, thickly wooded hills rose up rods ahead of us. The stream had been around us, and the banks were closely stocked dammed below, and ran very slow : and we with gigantic pines, the present wealth of that rode upon its dark surface as still as night wild region. The crows and ravens were itself. Dill, whose quick ear never mistook a slowly wending their ways to their homes in wood sound, noiselessly turned the canoe into the depths of the forest, and some of the night an eddy, and all sat in breathless silence, waitbirds had begun to pipe their organs, prepara- ing for the enemy. Presently, the footsteps tory to the monotonous concert, which was were again heard, and approached nearer and about to come off.

| nearer the edge of the water. How gloriously quiet is the hour of night “An old he one,” said Dill, in a scarcely fall, in those grand old woods! Not a breath audible whisper, at the same time cocking his of air moved to ripple the clear water of the rifle without a click. river, in whose depths, even in the twilight, The deer came on, evidently for the purpose we could see trout, bass, and other delicious of drinking, and stopped on the low bluff, as if sport-rewarders, enjoying their evening meals to reconnoitre. We could just see his form upon the silly insects who continually threw against the dusky sky, but in the deep shade themselves upon the surface of the water, as if below, he could not discover us. Dill, who had for the very purpose of being devoured by the not moved from his kneeling position in the finnies. The only-annoyance was the armies bottom of the canoe, now slightly raised his of punkies, (gnats,) that swarmed about us and tall figure, drew his rifle to his eye, and kept hands and cigars tolerably busy in the brought the muzzle to bear upon the obscure work of self defence.

object above him. We all held our breaths. “What time does the moon rise ?? asked A low, sharp whistle from the hunter caused Dill, raising his dripping paddle out of the the buck to start, and two glaring eyes were vater, and leaning upon it,--the very life-turned towards the place whence the sound picture of the hunter and river man.

proceeded. Crack! went the rifle, and a heavy "Not 'fore two in the mornin'," replied plunge into the water followed. But to our Brooks, the man addressed ; " have you any astonishment, the buck rose and struck out for tobacker ??

| the opposite side of the river. “Yes, (pitching him a quid,) and I'll bet And now the fun began. The shot, instead you a quart that I'll fetch a six year old before of being, as we guessed, in the buck's head, moonrise; will you bet?"

| had lodged in his shoulder, and he was not * Well, I don't mind the cost of the licker," | going to give up for that. said Brooks, " but bet with John, there; he's “Pull away, boys,” shouted Dill, at the same up here on the new county business, and they time grasping a setting pole, and forcing the do say that thar's brads' about. How's that, canoe across the stream with astonishing veloId Sceldelfy ?

city. The deer snorted and plunged, in his "Oh, agreed ; I'll take Dill's bet, and make agony, and was fast losing ground until he you another."

I got into deep water. We were five rods above “Come on-plank your sentiments. 'Taint him when the pursued and the pursuer reached