Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1871-05-17

| went s'ciick ciick, "nu ".N, ~
that she sat up IN bed. When she did
49, she was attracted by something else
that seemed creeping from the back door
towards the centre of the room. 1t
wasn't much wider than her little finger,
hut soon i, swelled to the width of her
hand, and began to spread all over the
floor. Ii was water.
She ran to the front door and threw
it wide open, and saw nothing but water.
She ran TO the back door and threw it
open ard saw nothing but wafer. She
ran 10 the eide window. and throwing
that open, she saw nothing but water
Then she remembered bearing her hus-
band once say that there was no danger
in the tide, for that fell regularly, and
people could calculate on il, and that he
would rather live on the bay than the
river, whose banks might overflow at
any time. But was it the tide! So she
ran again to the back door, and threw
out a stick of wood. 1t drifted away 10.
ward the bay. She scooped up some
waier and put it eagerly TO her lips. 1t
was fresh aud sweet. 1t was the river,
aud not the tIdel
II was then-O God be praised for his
goodness! she did neither faint nor fall ;
il was then-blessed be the Savior, for
IL was His mercifui hand that touched
and strengthened her in this awful mo-
ment-,bat fear dropped from her like a
garment, aud her trempling ceased. 1t
was then and thereafter that she never
lost her self command, through all the
trials Of that gloomy night.
She drew the beGs.ead toward the
middle Of the room, and placed a table
on il and on that she put the cradle. The
water on the floor was already over her
ankles, and the house once or twice NOV
ed so perceptibly, and seemed TO be rack
ed SO, that The closet doors all flew open.
Then she heard the same rasplng and
humping against tho wall. and. looking
out, saw tha, a large uproo;ed tree which
bad laid near the road at the upper end
of the pasture, had 6oated down TO the
house. Luckily its long roots dragged
in the soil and kept it from moving as
rapidly as the current, for bad 1t struck
the house in its full career, even the
strong nails and bolts in the piles could
not have wilbstood the shock. The
hound had leaped upon its knotty sur
face. aud couched near the roots whining
aud shivering. A ray of hope flashed
across her mind. She drew a heavy
blanket from the bed. wrapped it about
the babe, and waded in the deepening
waters to the door. As the tree swung
again. broadside on, making the little
cabin creak and tire nble, she leaped on to
its trunk. By Gods mercy she succeed
ed in obtaining a footing on its slippery
surface, and twining an arm about It's
roots, she held in the other her moaning
child. Then something cracked near tho
front porch, and the whole front of the
house she bad just quilted fell forward
Just as the cattle fall on their knees before
lbey lie down-and at the same mo
ment The great redwood tree swung
round and drilled away with its living
cargo into the black night.
For al! The excitement and danger, for
all her soothing of her crying babe, for
all the whisiling of the wind, for all the
uncertainty of her situation, she turned
la look at the deserted aud water swept
cabin. Size remembered, even then, and
she wonders how foolish she was to think
Of it a: that time, that she wished she
had put on another dress, and the baby's
best clothes; and she kept praying that
the house would be spared. so that be,
returned, would have something to come
to, aud it wouldn't be quite SO desolate,
and--how could he ever know what had
become of her ard baby? And at the
thought she grew sick aud faint. But
shs had something else to do besides wor
rying. for whenever the long roots of her
ark struck an obsticle, the whole trunk
made half revolution. and twice dip
ped her in the black water. The hound,
which kept distracling her by running
up and down the tree bowling, at last
fell off at one of these collisions. He
swan for some time beside ner, and she
tried to get the poor beast upon the tree;
but he " acted silly" and wild. and at last
she lost sight of him forever. Then she
and her babe were left alone. The light
which had burned for few minutes 10
the deserted cabin WAS quenched sudden.
ly. She could not tell whittier she was
drifting. The outline Of the white dunes
on the peninsula showed dimly ahead.
and she judged the tree was moving in =
hne with the river. 1t must be about
slack water, and she had probably reach
ed The eddy formed BY the confluence of
the tide and the OVERLOOKING waters Of
the river. Unless the tide fell soon there
was present danger of drifting to its chan.
mel, and being carried out to sea or crush.
ell in the floating drift. That peril avert
ed, If she were carried out on the ebb
toward the bay, she might hope to strike
one Of the wooded promontories of the
peninsula, and rest till daylight. Some.
times she thought she heard voices and
shouts from the river, and the believing
of cattle and bleating of sheep. Then
again it was only the ringing in her ears
and tbrobbing of her heart. She found
about this time that she was so chilled
and stiffened in her cramped position
that she could scarcely move, and the
baby cried so when she put it to her
breast that she noticed the milk refused
to flow; and she was so frightened at
Ii l.