If his book will meet with half as successful a "sell" as he met with the writer will be perfectly satisfied. Immediately after the flood there was a great demand among newspaper men for accounts of it from eye witnesses, and the author "spread himself" as the saying is, in the columns of a "daily" in a neighboring city. The main facts given in these pages were narrated and some which the writer afterwards had good reason to believe were apocryphal. There resides in Pleasant Valley, Maryland, a jolly farmer and shrewd business man, whose name it is not necessary to mention. He is much respected for many good qualities of head and heart, and his company is much sought and enjoyed by lovers of fun, for he is always ready to give and take a good joke. Hearing that the author was collecting items for an extensive account of the inundation, our wag determined to contribute his share of experiences, and he related to the writer how, on the Saturday of the flood, he had rescued, near his place, from the river, a colored woman who had floated down stream, on the roof of a house, from Page county, Virginia, fully seventy miles. He represented her as being a very large woman, so big, indeed, that it was wonderful that the roof could float and carry her weight. He also mentioned that when rescued she was composedly smoking a short pipe. The historian who, like all men of great genius, is remarkable for a child-like simplicity and an unsuspecting nature, eagerly noted the remarkable voyage and the singular incident of the pipe smoking, and next day the newspapers above referred to whose editor, too, must have been a man of genius, came out with the report--pipe story and all--and not until a skeptical friend of the correspondent, and one who is of an investigating turn of mind, ventured to ask how the woman got fire to light her pipe, did the possibility of his being deceived occur to the writer. In defense of his narrative and of his feelings, the author suggested that she might have had matches on her person, but as the chances were overwhelmingly against the probability of there being any thing dry about her, he was obliged to "confess the corn," as the phrase goes, and admit that he had been duped. It was some consolation, however, to reflect that the shrewd newspaper man had shared the same fate at the hands of the Pleasant Valley Munchausen. The latter further related that the woman was staying at his house, recruiting after her voyage and, this getting abroad, many contributions of money and creature comforts came pouring into his care, for the relief of his protege. There is a town not far from his house, the inhabitants of which were Abolitionists before the war, and are Republicans now. On hearing of the sad condition of the mythical black woman and her miraculous escape, the citizens of that place assembled in town meeting and subscribed liberally for her benefit. They were however, and are very cautious, prudent people and they determined to