{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/a-providential-escape",
 "title": "A Providential Escape",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames",
 "book_slug": "musings-on-the-banks-of-canadian-thames",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 47,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1884,
  "venue": "Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 1,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 6.9 character advances (~3.5 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.0 character advances (~3.5 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 3,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 6.9 character advances (~3.5 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 4,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.0 character advances (~3.5 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A wondrous tale we now do trace",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of little children fell in race,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The youngest of these little dears,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The boy’s age is but three years.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While coasting o’er the treacherous ice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These precious pearls of great price,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The elder Ruby, the daughter,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was rescued from the ice cold water.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But horrid death each one did feel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had sure befallen little Neil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consternation all did fill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they cried shut down the mill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But still no person they could tell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What had the poor child befell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The covered race, so long and dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of hopes there scarcely seemed a spark.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Was he held fast as if in vice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wedged ’mong the timbers and the ice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or was there for him ample room",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to float down the narrow flume.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Had he found there a watery grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or borne along on crest of wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Think of the mother’s agony wild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazing through dark tunnel for her child.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But soon as Partlo’ started mill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through crowd there ran a joyous thrill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he was quickly borne along,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The little hero of our song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alas! of life there is no trace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he is black all over face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though he then seemed as if in death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet quickly they restored his breath.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Think now how mother she adored",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her sweet dear child to her restored,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her boundless gratitude",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the author of all good.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Swept through dark passage ’neath the road,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saved only by the hand of God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No wonder Father now feels proud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of little Niel McKay McLeod.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}