OCR Text |
Show 70 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. ing up solid soil until it held in suspension nearly half its volume in sand. Trees were toppled down, houses fell and everybody rushed in fright away from the mad torrent. "After the sorrowful tales were told and the gloom wore away, we found much to laugh at. One lady awoke her husband and asked him to get up and see what was the matter, 'she heard a noise like the screaming of people.' He said it was the wind and gave himself up to sleep; but she 'refused to be comforted,' and aroused him again. He said, 'if I go to the door and look out, I suppose • you will be satisfied.' Stepping on the floor, he plunged knee deep in water; then, muttering a few crusty words about leaving the children's bath-tub in the middle of the' floor, he took another step, only to discover that something was radically wrong. They were saved from a watery grave by the gallant men on horses, who were dashing through the surging waves, rescuing families from their flooded homes." Cherry creek left the old bed and broke another for itself farther north, undermining the bluffs, and by the various magic of creative change formed new knolls and mounds, which stood fixed and permanent in their sudden heights, as if the Divine Architect was remodeling the earth. Many slept peacefully" through it all, awaking long after the sun's bright beams had dispelled the darkness and revealed their narrow escape from death. One man's house was torn from its foundation and carried by the flood wave to a hill, where it was stranded, like the Ark on Mt. Ararat. The next morning, when viewing the new topography, he exclaimed: "Has the |