Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1876 — LOVE AND A KITE. [ARTICLE]

LOVE AND A KITE.

‘‘ . dmr ’ what lhe probabilities?” temperature, with rain on the . “Qjk I •nt *>ny! It would be truly areadtul to have it rain to-morrow.” The “ ~ e y Paused and looked out through the half-ruined window of the old wooden bridge where they had met. She 1. . 0,1 one °f Ul ® stream. He made hie home on the other. They often met J»e center Of the dim and dusky bridge that spanned the river that ran through the town. It was one of those huge timbered truss bridges once so common inNew England. Outside, its ancient roof and boarded sides had taken on that sober slate-color that marks extreme age. Within,it waa dusty and dark. Upon the walls flakes es whitewash fluttered half detached, and festoons of cobweb mingled with abandoned nests left by departed swallows. Strange lights danced on tlie ■ ceiling, where a hole in the floor admitted the reflected light from the flashing waters below. Every footfall on the soft powdery dust that covered every thing echoed noisily, while the air seemed ever full of the monotonous murmur of the river. Just beyond, further down the stream, stood another bridge used by the railway trains and foot-passengers so that the town bridge was deserted by all save those with teams. Besides this, it was hardly considered safe. Its trusses already sagged down in the middle and threatened to drop into the water. For a while they gazed upon the roaring, foaming flood beneath them, and then she took his arm, and looking up in his face, said, softly: “ You will come early, dear. I shall be waiting for you.” “ Oh, of course, if the bridge holds together. It is a crazy affair, and we may nave a freshet to-night.” “ There’s the other bridge.” “ Yes, but if one goes the other may.” Then, after some further talk, they departed their several ways. The probabilities were correct. It did vain. It rained a very great deal. It rained more and more, and the snow that covered all the country round about began to melt. The river rose higher and higher. It turned yellow with drifting sand. Lumps ana sheets of ice began to float down with much grinding and uproar. By dark the water was within ten inches of high flood mark. By nine o’clock it was reported that an ice gorge had formed just above the town bridge. The next day neither scrap nor stick of either bridge could be found. At daylight the people gathered in two forlorn crowds upon the banks, and remarked that the situation was peculiar. Among them stood a young man and a young woman, each on one shore, while the river rolled between. Their situation was very peculiar. They gazed at each other over the boiling, roaring chasm, but they said nothing. It would have been useless while the water, half covered with floating ice and broken timbers boomed and thundered with such noise and ftiry. The modern Hero thought her Leander might kt least swim to her. He thought differently. A boat? A balloon would be safer. Thus thinking and mourning, they gazed at each other fondly for some time, and then by apparent mutual consent they retired to their respective breakfasts, to eat —and mourn. Every bridge for fifty miles up stream was reported down. Below, some twenty miles distant, were ferries —where there was no ice. She ate her breakfast with teary eyes. He couldn’t eat at all. He must cross that stream. How? Not all the delights of buckwheat cakes could win him from the thought. Thrusting a roll into his pocket, he went out to view the situation. It was not encouraging. For more than two miles above and below the town the river ran between steep clifls nearly seventy feet high. Behind these the country was level, and here on the banks the town had grown up on both shores. Above the divided village the fields came to the ragged, stony edge of the bluffs. His home was upon his father’s farm, and the paternal acres came to the water-side. Her father’ farm and fields were directly opposite. Hither, by a sort of mutual instinct, the v both went. 1 The snow had disappeared, and the ground was hard and frozen. The rain had ceased, and it looked as if it might clear away. They met on opposite sides of the river, and gazed fondly at each other after the manner of people in a certain peculiar frame of mind. She said in her heart, “ Thou art so near, and yet so far.” He said ( in his heart that it he couldn’t get over that three hundred feet of roaring water, he was a poor kind of a creature, and “ not much of a man anyway.” He sat down on a big stone to think. She also sat down, choosing a rail fence for a throne. Suddenly he sprang up and shouted at her. She raised her hand to her ear, to signify that she diif not understand. ‘‘Hang the thing! Give me a board!” He quickly tore one from a fence near by, and with a piece of chalk that happily he found in his pocket, he wrote thereon these remarkable words: "Wait for me." She nodded her head, and then wrapped her cloak closer about her, to signify she would wait a hundred years, if he would come to her. A moment after he burst in upon his venerable mother, and nearly bereft her of the few senses a kind Providence had left her by asking for a pot of paste. “ Is it postponed?" “No, mother; it’s to-day. Now do hurry up that paste.” . —— Then away he flew to the barn, and, taking the universal tool, the convenient Jack-Knife, he began to whittle at two long, slender sticks as only a Yankee can. A bit of wire and some string secured the sticks together, and a kite began to be evolved. Then back to the kitchen, where, armed with two newspapers and the maternal pot of paste, he knelt upon the floor to finish the machine. 'How long it did take for the thing to dry! He made the old stove roar, ana nearly burned the kite to a cinder in his haste to dry it. Twice he looked out the window, and wondered if she lingered still. Then the sun came out, and it began to clear away. He hoped the wind would hold fair just a little longer - “A ball of twine, mother, if you please. ” “Poor boy!” she murmured, as he departed ; “the disappointment is too much for him. He's losing his mind. Law sakes! bis father never went round making kites and things just for a chit like her. lie knowed too much.” ■ The moment she saw that kite, she sprang down from her rail-fence throne with a cry of delight. “What a boy! He is coming; he is coming to me.” How, she couldn't Imagine. Of course he Woeid not fly over on the kite. Still, ha Would come, and the kite was, in some fruition to be the bridge. He wavod*his hand to her, and then, having written

something on the back of the kite, he proceeded to fly the same. No children ever watched their flying toys with greater interest. Higher ana higher it rose on the air. Now he began to "pay out” the line. It hung high over her head, and she clapped her hands and laughed in almost childish pleasure. Suddenly it ducked its head, and, turning tail, began to fall in unseemly fluttering. It was coming down! She ran eagerly to catch it, and in a moment she bad it fast, and the slender string hung in a great loop over the river. “ Was there eversuch aboy? Ah! what’s this? Writing! ‘ Fatten the string to the bank. Call your brother, and bring a crowbar and tome strong rope.' ” She secured the precious string to a big stone, and, waving her hat to him, she turned away toward her home. He, on his side, made the line fast to a tree, and then went hastily over the fields toward his father’s barn. Finding his father there ho asked him to put the horse in the light job wagon. “ What for?” •‘ I’m thinking of going over the river.”

“Be you crazy ? How can ’’ “ Hold on, father. Don’t call me insane just yet. Get the horse, please, for I’m in haste. Besides, you ought to be getting ready.” “ Now look here! How’s me ami mother to cross the river with both bridges down ?’’ “ Well, mebby there’ll be a new bridge ’fore night” A momerft after, the young man brought a light wider chair from the house, and placing it in the wagon, he drove hastily &W&Va “Sell yer that’ere coil of wire rope? Wa’al, there’s nigh on to four hundred feet in it. It’s worth mor’n twenty-five dollars.” “All right! Here’s your money. Lift it right into the wagon. And four hanks of quarter-inch rope. How much will that be?”

“ Two dollars, I guess. Say, what be you going to do with that stull ? And say, heard the news? The express train is in, and all the passengers is a-waitin’ on the banks, and the hotel is jam-full. Awful times these! Mails all stopped too. Postmaster and the telegraph man’s nearly took crazy—” He waited to hear no more, and turned his horse through the main street, and started for home. As he passed the postoffice he saw the master at the door, and evidently in a high state of excitement. He pulled up ana asked what was the matter. “ Some fellow’s flowed a kite over the river, and’s going to sling letters, and—” Lashing his horse to fury, he dashed through the village and down the lane leading to his father’s farm. Were all his hopes to be thus ruined? A kite in March was not a common sigui. Of course all the boys and idlers had flocked to see what it meant A number of them had gathered at the bank, and stood gazing at the slender thread spanning the river, with evident interest. As he drove up he saw a young man stoop as if to cut the line. In despair he cried out:

“ Here, stranger! Let that line alone.” The man turned to see who spoke, but kept hold of the string. "That is my line, and I’ll thank you to leave it alone.” “ I shall not hurt it. I was only looking to see if I couldn’t use it to pull a wire over the river. I’m the telegraph operator, and all my wires went down with the bridge.” “ Well, you just hold on a bit. Let me attend to my affairs, and then you may put over all the wires you like. Say, boys, anybody want to earn a quarter?” A dozen boys volunteered at once. "All right: Sam Jackson, you may do it. Help me unload, and then yqu drive the horse home. And you, Ike Shawson, you run down to the store and buy a pair of barn-door hangers—the same kind that your father has on his big red barn door.” Sam and Ike were eager to lend a hand, and even the other boys wanted to help. It was evident something remarkable was to be done, and they were all eagerness to assist in the work, whatever it might be. There came a shout over the roaring river, and all turned to see what it meant. There stood Hero and her brother, surrounded by a number of people from their side of the village, and all evidently in a high state of excitement. “ Boys, give me a board.” They quickly found the one the former message had been written upon. With the chalk the young man wrote in large letters: “ Standby the line to haul.”

Two boys held the board up, and the party on the other bank waved their hats to signify that they were ready. It took but a moment to fasten the kite string to one of the pieces of rope, and then the board was displayed again: “ Haul." Slowly and carefully they pulled on tlie line, and in a few moments the rope swang in a gigantic loop from bank to bank. The next move required some engineering skill. Some advised one thing, some another, and in a multitude of counselors the business seemed in a fair way to stop. “ Now, look here! Whose farm is this ? Yes, my dad’s. All Tight. The next fellow that bothers me by talking must leave the place. Say, Mr. Telegrapher, what’s the best way to unroll tnis cable without getting ft into a kink’” "The operator suggested a stick put through the middle of the coil and held by a boy or man on each side. Then unroll it while they hold it up. Presently all was ready, and the board was displayed once more: “ Haul slowly.”

A brief note was written on an envelope and tied so the rope, and then the great enterprise began. The rope tightened and began to strain. Half a dozen men had hold of the end and began to walk away from the river, while Hero’s brother supported it at the edge of the bluff. Hero herself stood near, gazing anxiously at all these strange doings. She could not understand how her Leander was to cross, but she telt sure he would, in some fashion.

“ Let her turn easy. Easy now. Don’t i hold it back.” Slowly the wire rope unrolled and crept over the river. It hung down in a long black loop, and nearly touched the river below. “Steady, there! pay out slowly,” said the telegraph man. “Don’t let it touch the water.” Now the end could be seen climbing the opposite bank. Then there came a cheer. The river was bridged. The boy with the barn-door hangers returned, bringing with him a large crowd of people, including a number of the detained railroad passengers and the postmaster. The excitement was tremendous. A wire rope swinging in mid-air over the river evidently meant something, and there was the utmost eagerness displayed in the work. Leander became the hero of the hour; This was not singular. Did not his Hero wait for him just beyond the river ? “Now, gentlemen, if you’ll stand back, we’ll rig thia thing, ana then the bridge will be finished.” The crowdjpressed back, and waited in silence to see what would be done next. They looked over the stream, and founa the party on the other aide equally excited and busy. “ Lend a hand, boys. We must take the cable over the first limb of that tree and make her fast behind.” A dozen stout bands offered to help, and presently the cable was passed over the limb of the tree, while two men

held it fast. They looked again over the river, and found that, according to the directions sent them, the other party had taken their end of the cable over a wixxlen tripod made of three fence rails lashed together, and had secured the end to the crowbar that had been driven into the ground. “ All ready there! Pull now!” Slowly the great loop spread out till the cable seemed to be almost straight from shore to shore. One bank was a little higher than the other, and the line made a slight descent in crossing. This had Men expected,»and the bridge-builder relied upon this fall as a motive power in crossing the stream. “ Now fasten her safe, boys, and the thing’s done.” With the aid of some of the loose rope they fastened the cable to a huge bowlder behind the tree, and then they gave three cneers for the finished work. “ My sakes!” cried a small boy, won’t his hands burn the time ho slides over!” Some of the other boys laughed, and the whole company gathered round to see what would be done next. Placing the barn-door hangers one before the other on the wire rope, just at the edge of the bluff, where it happened to be in reach, tlie young builder proceeded to tie the wicker chair to them in such a way that its weight kept the wheels of the hangers securely balanced on top of the wire cable. Sudaenly the whole thing dawned upon tlie assembled multitude. Shouts of surprise and delight at the skill and ingenuity of the enterprise, and eager questions as to when the bridge would be opened, came from every lip. A gentleman pressed forward and said —

•‘ Do you intend to operate this bridge, sir?" “ Yes, sir. I’m going over as soon as the chair is secure.” “ I’ll give you ten dollars to let me go first." “ Can’t do it, sir. I’m going myself.” “ Yes, but you could come after me.” “ Guess not. How could 1 get the car back “ I’ll make it thirty dollars—fifty.” “No, sir. I’m going first.” “No. Don’t you see it's up hill? The car will go down easy, but there’s no getting her back. Besides, I can’t stop. Got an engagement, you know, on the other side.” “ How will you get back yourself?” “ Oh, I don’t care to! I’m going ‘over to stay.” Just here the postmaster drew the stranger aside and whispered in his ear. The man laughed, and asked no more questions. It was a moment of intense excitement. “ Hold her steady, boys, while I get in. When I say go, let her slide.” The young man sat down in the chair swinging under the rope. Two stout fellows tooK hold on each side and drew it. back. It moved easily on the rope, and there was a little shout of applause. “ Hold on!” cried the postmaster. "Could you not take this mail-bag in your lap ?” “No; the rope might break. Every pound tells, and I’m very light.” “Nonsense!” cried the stranger, who wished to cross. “The rope will bear two like you.” “ Well, how much Goes the bag weigh?” “ Only two pounds.’’ “All right; I’ll take it. Readv, now. Go!”

Go he did. The car, drawn onward by the weight of its load, shot out over the river with the speed of the wind. The rope bent under the weight, and the two crowds gathered on the banks held their breaths in alarm. Then it began to slacken its speed. The rope under the strain made a loop again, and suddenly the intrepid voyager stopped in mid-air, perhaps a hundred feet from the shore. A wild shout of dismay went up from the people. The navigator looked up at the slender rope over his head and down at the roaring river sixty feet below. In despair he gazed at the shore. Where was his Hero now? Alas! in a dead faint on the ground behind the people. Some one found her, and they all turned to see what had happened, and left the luckless voyager to swing slowly backward and forward on the wind, and utterly out of reach. The situation was desperate. Why had he not drawn the cable tighter ? If it had been secured properly, this dreadful accident would not have occurred. The people on the banks ran hither and thither in helpless confusion. Those nearest to him were busy with the poor child whose nerves had been shattered by the accident, and the young man himself was neglected. Presently they took the young woman home, and then they turned to see what could be done to rescue him. After some little delay a rope was procured, and an effort made to throw it to him. He failed to catch it, though it touched his chair twice. Still they kept on, and at last he secured it. A dozen stout fellows began to pull on it, and his car slowly and gently rolled ashore, amidst the cheers and shouts of the assembled populace. Twenty hands were reached out to pull him in, and he landed in the midst of a frantic company of men and boys. Would the bridge be open for travel ? Could he not take a message back ? The conductor of the express train wanted his passengers taken over. The express-man had a trunk of valuables that must cross somehow. - :

A big man in a traveling suit pressed through the crowd and seized his hand just as he stepped out of the car. “ Did you build that bridge?” “ Yes, sir, I did.” “Very bright idea! I once saw one j ust like it in Japan.” “Yes, sir, I saw the pictureof one on a Japanese fan. That’s what made me think of it” “Youshould put up another wire it you wish to go back.” “ Don’t want to. I’ve come to stay.” Thereupon the young man began to unfasten the chair as if to take it away. “ Hold on a bit! What will you take for the bridge ?” “Don’t want to sell. Besides, lam busy now.”

He turned to go away, but the stranger detained him. “ Don’t you want to make a fortune?” “Yes, btit I can’t stop. Busy to-day. Besides, they are waiting for me.” The man was importunate, and even the people gathered about murmured as if in remonstrance. “Look you, young man. That bridge of yours is worth a thousand dollars to the man who knows how to work it.” “That’s so, that’s so,” said the people. “ The other bridges cannot be built in a month, and all the railroad travel, the mails, and light freight will have to cross oh your cable.” “Yes,” replied the young man, impatiently ; “ but I’ve no time to attend to it—at least not to-day.” - . Here the crowd suddenly parted, and on the arm of her aged father appeared the blushing Hero. They snook hands heartily, and if it had not been for the presence of the assembled company, it is believed they would have kissed each other. “ Oh, I told them you would come. I was sure of it, but I didn’t think you’d fly.” “ Of course. I said I should be on time, and here I am. It’s almost time, I slippose?” “ Yes, very nearly.” The stranger became still more importunate. J “Look here, young man, I mean business. If you’re in such a particular

hurry, give me you? terms, and I’ll buy you out.” “ Wall, stranger, you wait an hour, and I’ll talk with you.” “ No; the whole business: of the road is blocked, and we must have, another wire up and more cars at once. Come! I’m the vice-president of the railroad, and you can trust me.” "What does he want?” whispered Hero. “ He wants to buy the wire bridge.” “Does he? Well, make him give a good price. It may help to furnish that spare room; besides, I want a little larger stove.” The young man thought a moment, and then he said, slowly, as if offering a great favor. "Idon't know much about such matters, Mr. President, but I’ll sell a half interest in my bridge and the right to land cabled on our farm for SSOO, Mid I’ll agree to run the bridge myself.” “ Oh, yon don’t know about such matters! You are keen for one so young. However, I’ll take you up.” “ All right, Sir. ’ We must have four cables and a dozen cars at once. I was thinking of it when I got stuck. I guess it will be a good speculation.” “ Here’s my hand on it. Can you begin to-day?” “ Yes, by and-by—this afternoon. Just now I’m busy. I must go.” “ What, in the name of Heaven, is your haste? Business is pressing on the line already.” “ Yes, I know it; but—the fact is—this is my wedding day.”— Harper's Weekly.