One of the planters so notified was an old Cajun--Cajun being a
corruption of the word "Acadian," denoting those persons of French
descent driven from Acadia, in Canada, by the British many years ago.
This old man did not believe that the river would rise as high as
predicted and was not disposed to cap his levee.
"But," said the member of the local levee board, who interviewed him,
"the United States engineer says you will have to put two twelve-inch
planks, one above the other, on top of your levee, and back them with
earth, or else the water will come over."
At last the old fellow consented.
Presently the floods came. The water mounted, mounted, mounted. Soon it
was halfway up the lower plank; then it rose to the upper one. When it
reached the middle of that plank the Cajun became alarmed and called
upon the local levee board for help to raise the capping higher still.
"No," said the local board member who had given him the original
warning, "that will not be necessary. I have just talked to the United
States engineer. He says the water will drop to-morrow."
The old man was skeptical, however, and was not satisfied until the
board member agreed that in case the flood failed to abate next day, as
predicted, the board should do the extra capping. This settled, a nail
was driven into the upper plank to mark the water's height.
Pages:
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517