Page:Patches (1928).pdf/266

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weeping and laughing, as she hugged the child to her breast, "my baby, my baby."

"Gott bless you, my boy," said old man Ganzer in his broken English. "I am ashamed that I have been so mean to you cattle people."

"You don't any of you deserve such a sweet little girl after deserting her in that cowardly way," said Larry, "but take good care of her now you have her back."

Then he galloped away and they heard his clear, resonant voice like a bugle call as it echoed far over the prairie land.

"The dam has burst. The flood is upon you. Look to your lives and your live stock."

Thanks to Larry's timely warning the people of the little settlement on the prairie saved their own lives as well as those of their horses and cattle although they lost a few chicken coops and pig pens and some small stock. But the story of the young man's daring rescue of Elsie Ganzer in the face of the on-coming flood and his heroic warning of the people in the settlement spread like wild fire through the region. If anything more was needed to add to the fame of this wonderful horse and his intrepid rider this story did it.