"Creeks don't rise" (1901, 1908)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Here is some sort of figurative usage from 1908:

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_Portsmouth [OH] Times_, 28 Nov. 1908: p. 4:

<<It sprinkled a bit Monday, just in mocking reminder of what might have
been had we been wise enough to return to the good old Democratic days of
"Divine Providence permitting and the creeks don't rise.">>

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Here is an example of the original literal sense, I think:

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Rolf Boldrewood, "Five Men's Lives for One Horse", in _In Bad Company and
Other Stories_ (Macmillan [London], 1901), p. 214:

[set in Australia]

<<'I don't care if it rains till Christmas,' remarked a dissipated-looking
youth, who had successfully finished a game of euchre with a dirty pack of
cards and an equally unclean companion. 'It's no odds to us, so long's the
creeks don't rise and block us goin' to the big smoke to blue our cheques.
I don't hold with too much fine weather at shearin' time.'>>

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-- Doug Wilson


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