Nell Had To Jump Into The River

 "Great!" said Grandma Lu. "Can you tell us where I left off?" "Yes, Marlee said, I think Nell was about to jump in the dirty water and Marlee Ada was going to fall in the well." Grandma Lu grinned when most folks agreed with Marlee. "I think that about sums it up. I can't believe you remembered where I was; it's been several weeks now." 

"So Nell was scared to death, she was cold and wet. The river had big waves called rapids from the rain and the wind. Does anyone know what rapids are? Well they are often in the deepest part of the river and that causes the water to go really fast over and around the rocks. When the water splashes it gets air in the water and makes it looks kind of white. It is scary looking.  And guess what? Nell didn't know how to swim. She had no choice but to jump into the river. But just as she was going to let go of the wagon and jump into the cold muddy water, a horse and a man came swimming towards her. The man yelled, "Try to jump onto the horse's back! Wrap your hands tight in the horse's mane and sit as still as you can. I'll try and catch up with you."

"Oh she was so scared, but she knew she had to do it, so she jumped! And guess what? She landed on the horse and the man helped her to the shore. But as the horse and the man helped her to the shore she saw her friend and her wagon crashing down the cold muddy river. She could no longer see her, but she hoped against hope that she would soon be safe."

"The men and women that were already on shore rushed to help her wrapping her with blankets to help keep away the cold. They had made a circle of wagons that had been saved. The men had made small fires out of wood that would burn. So much of the wood was too wet to burn because of the terrible rain. Nell felt like she was in a dream; a bad dream."

"She automatically reached inside her now wet and muddy coat. She found it. The picture of her mother. She could barely make out her mother's face. She took the picture and sat as close to the fire as she could so the picture would dry. It was all that she had left of her mother. The sewing machine was gone, the quilts and all of the food and clean water were gone. She felt so alone and lost. Her tears dropped slowly onto the picture she held adding to her loneliness one tear at a time."