A raft of timber, on its way down the river to the nearest port, was dashed to pieces by the violence of the rapids.  There was the usual number of men upon it, all of whom, except two, were fortunate enough to get upon a few logs, which kept together, and were comparatively safe, while their two poor comrades, were helplessly contending with the tumbling waves, almost within reach of them, but without their being able to afford them the slightest assistance.  After a minute or two, and when one more would have been their last, a long oar or sweep, belonging to the wretched raft, came floating by.  They instantly seized it, and held on till they were carried down more than a mile, loudly calling for help as they went along; but what aid could we render them?  No craft, none, at least, which were on the banks of the river, could live in such a boiling torrent as that; for it was during one of the high spring freshets.  But the ferryman was of a different opinion, and could not brook the thought of their dying before his eyes without his making a single effort to save them.  “How could I stand idly looking on,” he said to me afterward, “with a tough ash oar in my hand, and a tight little craft at my feet, and hear their cries for help, and see them drowned?” He determined, at all risks, to try to rescue them from the fate which seemed to us inevitable.  He could not, however, go alone, and there was not another man on that side of the river within half a mile of him.  His sister knew this, and, courageously, like another Grace Darling, proposed, at once, to accompany him in his perilous adventure.  From being so often on the water with her brother, she knew well how to handle an oar.  Often, indeed, without him she had paddled a passenger across the ferry in her little canoe.  He accepted her proposal, and we had the satisfaction of seeing the light punt put off from the shore opposite to that from which we were idly and uselessly looking on, and go gallantly over the surging torrent toward the sinking men.  We feared, however, that it would not be in time to save them, as their cries for help grew fainter and fainter, till each one, we thought, would have been their last.  We saw that the oar, with the drowning men clinging to it, was floating rapidly down the middle of the stream, which, in this particular locality, is more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, and would inevitably, in two or three minutes more, be in the white water among the breakers, when their fate must be sealed, and the boat, if it followed, dashed to pieces among the rocks.  This was the principal point of danger, and they had to run down within a most fearful proximity of it, to cross the course down which the drowning men were drifting, and, as they did so, to seize hold of them without losing their own headway; for there was not time for that.  They succeeded in shooting athwart the current, rapid as it was, just below the men.  With breathless and painful anxiety we saw them execute this dangerous manoeuver.  We saw the ferryman lean over the side of his boat, for a moment, as it passed them, while his sister backed water with her oar.