Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-05-12
HIGH WATER MARK.
BY BRET HARTE.

LET me recall story which never faileC
10 recur to my mind in my long CUNNING
excursions upon Dedlow Marsh. All
though the event was briefly recorded ir
the county paper, I had the story. in al
Its eloquent detail, from the lips of the
principal actor. l cannot hope to catch
the varying emphasis and peculiar color
ing OF feminine delineation, for nv mar
rator was woman; but I'll try to give
at least It's substance.
She lived midway of the great slough
OF Dedlow Marsh and good-sized river
which debouched four miles beyond into
an estuary formed by the Pacific Ocean,
on the long, sandy peninsula, which con.
stiuted the northwestern boundary of a
noble bay. The house in which she lived
was a small framed cabin, raised from the
marsh few feet, by stout piles, and was
three miles distant from the settlement
upon a river. Her husband was a logger
"a profitable business in country where
the principal occupation was the manu-
facture of lumber.
1t was the season of early spring, when
her husband left on the ebb of high tide,
with raft of logs for the usual transpor-
tation to the lower end of the bay. As
she stood by the door of the little cabin
when the voyagers departed, she noticed
cold look in the southeastern sky, and
she remembered hearing her husband say
to his companions that they must endea-
Vor to complete their voyage before the
coming of the southwesterly gale which
he saw brewing And that night it began
TO storm and blow harder than she had
ever before experienced, and some great
trees fell In the forest by the river, and the
house rocked like her baby's cradle.
But however the storm might roar about
the little cabin, she knew that one she
trusted had driven bolt and bar with his
own strong hand, and that had he feared
for her, he would not have left her. This,
and her domestic duties, and the care of
her little sickiy baby, helped to keep her
mind fromdwellingO on the weather, except,
OF course, to hope that he was safely har-
bored with the logs at Utopia, in the
dreary distance. But she noticed that day,
when she went out to feed the chickens
and look after the COW, that the tide was
up to the little fence of their garden patch,
and the roar of the surf OF the south
beach, though miles away, she could hear
distinctly. And she began to think she
would like to have some one to talk with
about matters, and she believed that if it
had not been so far and so stormy, and the
trail 80 impossible, she would have taken
the baby and have gone over to Rack
mans, her nearest neighbor But then
you see, he might have returned in the
storm, all wet, with no one to see to him /;
and it was long exposure for bAby, who
was croupy and ailing.
But that night she never could tell why
she didn't feel like sleeping, or even lying
down. The storm had somewhat abated
but she still "sat and sat-" and even tried
EfafN hot II. 81.
Bible or some profane magazine that this
fsoor woman read, but most probably the
latter, for the words all ran together and
made such sad nonsense that she was
forced at last to put the book down and
turn to that dearer volume which lay be-
fore her in the cradle, with its white initial
leaf as yet unsoiled, and try to look for
ward to its mysterious future. And, rock
ing the cradle, she thought of everything
and everybody, but still was wide awake
as ever.
1t was nearly twelve o'clock when she at
last lay down in her clothes. How long
she slept she could not remember, but she
awoke with a dreadful choking in her
throat, and found herself standing, tremb-
ling all over, in the middle of the room,
with her baby clasped to her breast, and
she was saying something" The baby
cried and sobbed, and she walked up and
down trying to hush it, when she heard a
scratching at the door. She opened it
fearfully, and was glad so see it was only
old Pete, their dog, who crawled, dripping
with water, into the room. She would
like to have looked out not in the faint
hope of her husbands coming, but to see
how things looked; but the wind shook
the door so savagely that she could hardly
hold it. Then she sat down little while,
and then she laid down again little
while. Lying close by the wall of the
little cabin, she thought she heard once or
twice something scrspe slowly against the
clapboards, like the scraping of branches.
Then there was little gurgling sound,
a" like the baby made when it was swallow
ing;" then something went click-click,"
and cluck-cluck," so that she sat up in
bed. When she did SO, she was attracted
by something else that seemed creeping
from the back door toward the center of
the room. 1t wasn't much wider than her
little finger, but soon 1t swelled to the
width of her hand, and began TO spread all
over the floor, 1t was water.
She ran to the front door and threw it
wide open, and saw nsthing but water.
She ran TO the side window, and, throw
ing that open, she saw nothing but water.
Then she remembered hearing 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 tideY So she ran again to
the back door, and threw out stick of
wood. 1t drifted away towards the bay.