ough they were going to get married. On Sunday before the conversation
between John and Amanda Ramon, William Scott had reminded Estelle of
their long ago agreement, and Estelle had told him that they would carry
out this agreement some day when they were older. Estelle one day told
William that her father liked him, but that her mother hated him and
that it would be best that he quit coming to her home. It was on this
occasion that William and Estelle plighted each other their love and he
told her that nothing but death could ever separate him from her, and
that he would, if necessary, give his life for her. In after years they
both well remembered these words.

John Ramon continued to work hard and to prosper. One day when he came
home from town he told his wife and Estelle that rafting logs down the
river was dangerous, and that if anything should happen to him he wanted
to leave them a living, and, for this reason, he had his life insured
today while in town for $5,000. Heavy rains were falling up the
Cumberland and John Ramon was working hard, he and his hired hands, to
get the log raft ready to go down the river and carry his logs to
Nashville when the river got high enough.

One evening John learned that a head rise was coming down the
Cumberland, and he and all hands were making ready to cut the raft loose
and carry it to the saw mills in Nashville as he had been doing year
after year. Late on this evening John Ramon kissed his wife and Estelle
good-by. He lingered longer than was his custom, and said that somehow
he felt uneasy as if something was going to happen. At dark he reached
the river and at ten o'clock they heard the head rise coming. The raft
was cut loose and the rise struck it and carried it out into the middle
of the river. The rushing waters bore down so heavily on the raft that
it broke and went to pieces in the middle of the rushing waters. John
Ramon became entangled among some of the logs and could not loose
himself. He called for help, but no help could reach him in the darkness
of the night and the fury of the waters. His voice rang out above the
noise of the waters, and he cried out the last words he ever spoke on
earth, "William, I'm gone. Promise me that you will take care of
Estelle." The voice of William Scott rang out "I swear to you that I
will do it." John Ramon went down; others of the crew escaped on logs.

I shall not undertake to describe the great sorrow in the Ramon home
when