d. Won't you take us?"

Old Pence hesitated for a moment and then turned and asked, "Who will go
with me?"

"Let me go, Mr. Oiler," said Shawn, never thinking of danger connected
with the river.

"Can you hold the rudder?" asked old Pence as he turned to Shawn.

"I'll hold it, Mr. Oiler," said Shawn. Down to the shore they went, the
sweet woman calm and undisturbed, while the young man at her side was
trembling and uneasy. The wind was blowing a gale, and the waves were
beating angrily upon the shore.

[Illustration: "I'll give you ten dollars to set us over."]

After several attempts, Shawn and Oiler succeeded in launching the boat
and getting up sail. The spray and water came drenching the young woman,
but she quietly took her seat.

"Hold her dead on Ogman's hill!" yelled Oiler to Shawn. The wind
bellowed into the stout sail and they shot into the foam, Shawn leaning
back with a firm grasp on the tiller, and his eye fixed on Oiler.

"Keep her quartered, with stern to the wind, and don't give her a chance
to sheer!" shouted Oiler.

"Is there much danger?" asked the bridegroom, as his teeth chattered.
Oiler did not answer him but yelled to Shawn, "Hold her steady and
fast!"

"I'm trying to," said the groom, clutching his fair companion.

"I wasn't talking to you," said Oiler.

They were nearing the Indiana shore. Oiler shouted to Shawn, "Turn her
down a few points, then lift her out on the shore!" and beautifully did
they mount high on the pebbled beach. Oiler turned to Shawn and said,
"We'll not go back to-night." They went to the hotel. The proprietor
found the county clerk and a minister, and there in the little hotel
parlor, Shawn saw their passengers take the marriage vows.

"Wasn't he scared comin' over?" said Shawn to Oiler as they went to bed.

"Yes," said Oiler, "but wimmen always has the best grit when it comes to
a showdown, and when a woman makes up her mind to do a thing, 'spesh'ly
to git married, thar ain't no river or anything else can stop her. I've
seed a good many couples cross this stream--some of 'em, I reckon, wish
they had never made the trip. I fetched old Joe Davis over here with his
third wife. He run away with old Dodger Spillman's girl. Old Dodger
killed a plug hoss tryin' to beat them to the river. We was about forty
yards from shore when old Dodger run down and hollered for me to come
back, but his girl stood up in the skiff and hollered to him, 'Go back,
pap and cool off--