While still at the mill, one beautiful day after we got our work done, Alice and
I went for a walk across a stream of water called the South Fork to get some pine boughs on the
hillside. There was a log over which we crossed. After getting the pine boughs we threw them over
the water. When we were ready to cross I asked Alice if she thought she could wade the stream. She
said she didn't know. I told her I believed I could. I said, "Well, I will see that you get across
safely first." I thought I was head cook and bottle washer.
I told her to take a stick that was laying there to balance herself with. She
did but the water was so swift and she hung to the stick till she was overbalanced and in she went.
I told her to grab a limb on the log and hang on till I could get to her. The water was so swift it
took me right off my feet the moment I got in. I grabbed the log with my arm and worked myself
along to her, but couldn't do a thing. I put my arm around her and told her to let go and away we
went down stream, the big waves turning us over and over. We tried to work ourselves over to the
shallow side. There was a limb of a tree that hung almost flat with the water. She being on that
side, I told her to grab it, which she did, and it broke off so down we went again. We gradually got
to where it was shallow enough to get out. We were about strangled! Alice was the worst as she got
water down her throat when she first fell in.
Well, we looked just like two drowned rats. Now we must get to the cook house
without the men seeing us. It was only a few rods from the Mill on the west side. We ran to the
house. When we got there we heard some men talking like they were in the house, so we peeked through
the cracks and saw no one. Being all excited we couldn't open the door. We still thought there
were men in there as we could hear them talking. We thought they had the door locked. We slipped
around the corner again and peeked and peeked but saw no one, so we tried the door again and it came
open immediately. Instead of met, it was oxen at the west end of the house.
We had to have dinner at noon, only 15 minutes. We made the fire, changed our
clothes and got dinner all right. We never told what had happened until three weeks later. When
they heard our story they said it was the biggest wonder in the world that we ever got out for it
was all a man could do to wade that stream of water, it being at its highest in June. That is the
South Fork of Provo River above Woodland.
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