Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
History
Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
Women -- United States -- Biography
SHAKSPEARE.
The first settler in Hollis, New Hampshire, was Captain Peter Powers. He
removed thither in 1731. His nearest neighbor, for a time, was ten miles
distant; and in order to exchange courtesies it was necessary for the
families to cross the Nashua river. It had but one convenient and safe
fording place in that vicinity, and that one only when the river was
low.
Having occasion, on a pleasant August morning, to visit her neighbor,
Mrs. Powers mounted a Narraganset, hastened away, and reached the place
of destination long before noon. Early in the after part of the day a
fearful thunderstorm came up, and continued for several hours. Just at
sunset the clouds began to break away, and Mrs. Powers immediately
started on her return. She did not reach the river until some time after
dark; and coming to the ford, she found the bank full and the water--as
a narrator of the incident has it--"pressing on it with great
rapidity." Added to this alarming circumstance, the wind had shifted and
rolled the clouds up the sky again, so that the rain was descending in
torrents, and drowning the threatening voice of the waves. Trusting to
the experienced animal to keep the ford, and giving a slack rein,
without realizing the danger, the courageous woman plunged into the
black stream. The steed almost instantly lost its foothold, and "rolling
in the waves at a full swim," made for the opposite shore. Missing the
ford, and striking a forefoot on a rock in the bed of the stream, the
animal was raised momentarily half way out of the water. Then plunging
forward, it sank so deep that Mrs. Powers was raised from the pommel;
but seizing the horse's mane as it rose, she held her grasp till they
were safely on shore. The faithful animal soon found the right track,
and in a brief hour Mrs. Powers was under the shelter of her cabin.
MRS. McKENNY.
More can I bear than you dare execute.
SHAKSPEARE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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