in exclaimed at the stake, "therefore it
shall suffer first punishment"; and holding it steadily in the flame,
"he never stirred nor cried till life was gone."

A woman's piercing shriek suddenly startled a party of surveyors at
dinner in a forest of northern Virginia on a calm, sunny day in 1750.
The cries were repeated in quick succession, and the men sprang through
the undergrowth to learn their cause. "Oh, sir," exclaimed the woman
as she caught sight of a youth of eighteen, but a man in stature and
bearing; "you will surely do something for me! Make these friends
release me. My boy,--my poor boy is drowning, and they will not let me
go!" "It would be madness; she will jump into the river," said one of
the men who was holding her; "and the rapids would dash her to pieces
in a moment!" Throwing off his coat, the youth sprang to the edge of
the bank, scanned for a moment the rocks and whirling currents, and
then, at sight of part of the boy's dress, plunged into the roaring
rapids. "Thank God, he will save my child!" cried the mother, and all
rushed to the brink of the precipice; "there he is! Oh, my boy, my
darling boy! How could I leave you?"

But all eyes were bent upon the youth struggling with strong heart and
hope amid the dizzy sweep of the whirling currents far below. Now it
seemed as if he would be dashed against a projecting rock, over which
the water flew in foam, and anon a whirlpool would drag him in, from
whose grasp escape would seem impossible. Twice the boy went out of
sight, but he had reappeared the second time, although terribly near
the most dangerous part of the river. The rush of waters here was
tremendous, and no one had ever dared to approach it, even in a canoe,
lest he should be dashed to pieces. The youth redoubled his exertions.
Three times he was about to grasp the child, when some stronger eddy
would toss it from him. One final effort he makes; the child is held
aloft by his strong right arm; but a cry of horror bursts from the lips
of every spectator as boy and man shoot over the falls and vanish in
the seething waters below.

"There they are!" shouted the mother a moment later, in a delirium of
joy. "See! they are safe! Great God, I thank Thee!" And sure enough,
they emerged unharmed from the boiling vortex, and in a few minutes
reached a low place in the bank and were drawn up by their friends, the
boy senseless, but still alive, and the youth almost exhausted. "God