resting upon the banks. It was raised some
eight or ten feet above the water and protected by a strong railing or
balustrade and shaded by the overhanging branches of a large and
beautiful hackberry tree. It made an ideal lounging-place, upon a soft
spring afternoon, when all the river banks were a mass of tender
green, and the soft cooing of doves filled the air. We usually took
Minor with us to bait our hooks and assist generally, and often went
home by starlight with a glorious string of fish.

The drawback to the plantations upon the lower Roanoke lay in their
liability to being flooded by the freshets to which the Roanoke was
exposed. These were especially to be dreaded in early spring, when
the snow in the mountains was melting. I have known freshets in March
to inundate the country for miles. At one time there was not a foot of
dry land upon one of the Runiroi plantations. It was upon a mild night
in that month that I sat upon the porch nearly all through the night,
feeling too anxious to sleep, for your grandfather, the overseer, and
every man on the plantation were at the river, working upon the
embankments. The back waters from the swamp had already spread over
everything. This gentle and slow submersion did no great damage, when
there was no growing crop to be injured; the thing to be guarded
against was the breaking of the river dam and the consequent rushing
in of such a flood as would wash the land into enormous holes, or
"breakovers," of several acres in extent in some places, or make great
sand ledges in others, to say nothing of the destruction of fences,
the drowning of stock, etc. On the night that I speak of, the moon was
at its full and glittered upon the water, rippling all around where
dry land should have been. I sat listening anxiously and occasionally
shuddering at a sharp cracking noise, like a pistol shot, and,
following upon it, the rushing of water into some plantation up the
river. Once in the night I heard a noise and, upon my calling to know
who it was, a man replied that they had come up in a canoe to get some
water. I could not help laughing; it struck me that water was rather
too plentiful just then. They worked upon the dam until there was no
more material to work with, water being level with the top on both
sides and only a foot of standing-room at the top, so, having done all
that they could, all hands took to canoes and went to their homes.
That "March freshet" did incalculable da