A woman’s scream suddenly startled a party of surveyors at dinner in a forest in northern Virginia on a calm, sunny day in 1750. The men ran in the direction of the scream. One of the first to reach the scene was an 18-year-old.
“Please, sir, please make them release me,” the woman said as several held her. “My boy is drowning and they will not let me go to save him!” One of those holding her yelled: “It would be madness; she will jump into the river and drown herself.”
The young man threw off his coat, sprang to the edge of the bank, scanned for a moment the rocks and whirling currents, and then, catching a glimpse of the boy, plunged into the roaring rapids. “Thank God,” the mother said, “he will save my boy!” Everyone watched as the young would-be rescuer fought the rocks and the whirlpools. Twice the rescuer disappeared from sight only to come back. He was nearing the…
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