The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-03
HIGH WATER MARK.
A Thrilling Adventure on Dedlow Marsh
By BRET HARTE.

sions upon Dedlow Marsh. Although the
event was briefly recorded in the county
paper, had the story, in all its eloquent de-
tail, from the lips Of its principal actor. I
cannot hope to catch the varying emphasis
and peculiar ooloring of feminine delinea-
tion, for my narrator was a woman; but I'll
try to give at least its substance.
She lived midway of the great slough of
Dedlow Marsh and good size river, which
debouched four miles beyond into an estuary
formed by the Pacific Ocean, on the long
sandy peninsula which continued the north
western boundary of noble bay. The house
in which she lived was small frame cabin
raised from the marsh few feet by stout
piles, and was three miles distant from the
settlements upon the river. Her husband
was logger-a profitable business in coun-
try where the principal occupation was the
manufacture of lumber.
It was the season of early spring, when her
husband left on the ebb of high tide, with
raft of logs for the usual transportation to
the lower end of the bay. AS she stood by
the door of the little cabin when the voyagers
departed she noticed a cold look in the south
eastern sky and she remembered hearing her
husband say to his companions that they
must endeavor to complete their voyage
before the coming of the southwesterly blow
which he saw brewing. And that night it
began to storm and blow harder than she had
ever befole 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
her 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 sickly baby, helped
to keep her mind from dwelling on the
weather, except, of course, to hope that he
was safely harbored 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 border patch, and
the roar of the surf on the south beach,
though miles away, she could hear distinctly
And she began to think that she would like to
have some one to talk with about matters, and
she believed that if it had not been SO far and
stormy, and the trail SO impossible, she would
have taken the baby and gone over to Back
mans, her nearest neighbor. But then, you
see, he might have returned in the storm, all
wet, with no one to see him; and it was a
long exposure of 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
abe still ''sat and sat, and even tried to read.
Idon't know whether it was Bible or some
profane magazine that this poor woman read,
bu, most probably the latter, for the words
all fan together and made such sad nonsense
that she was forced at last to put the book
down and turn to the dearer volume which
lay before her in the cradle, with its white
initial leaf as yet unsoiled and try to look
forward to its mysterious future. And rock
ing the cradle, she thought of everything and
everybody, but still she was wide awake as
ever.
1t was nearly twelve o'clock when she at
last laid down in her clothes How long she
slept she could not remember, but she awoke
with dreadful choking in her throat, and
found herself standing, trembling 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 to see it
was only Pete, their dog, who crawled
dripping with vater, 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 80 savagely that she could
hardly hold it. Then she sat down a little
while, and then she lay down again little
while. Lying close by the wall of the little
cabin, she thought she heard once or twice
something scrape slowly against the clap
boards, like the scraping of branches Then
there was little gurgling sound, ''like the
baby made when swallowing" then some
thing 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 towards
the centre of the room. 1t wasn't much
wider than her little finger, but soon it
swelled to the width of her hand, and began
10 spread oil over the floor. 1t 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, and saw
nothing but water. Then she remembered
hearing her husband once say there was no
danger in the tide, for that fell regularly, and
people could calculate on it; 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 10 the
back door and threw out stick of wood 1t
drifted away toward the bay. She scoopea up
some water and put it eagerly toward her Ups.
1t was fresh and sweet. 1t was the river, and
not the tide
1t was then-O God be praised for His
goodness she did neither faint nor fall It
was then--blessed be the Saviour, for it was
His merciful hand that touched and strength.
ensd her in this awful moment-that fear
dropped from her like a garment, and her
trembling ceased. 1t was then and there.
after that she never lost her elf-command,
through all the trials of that gloomy night
She drew the bedstead toward the middle
of the rCom, and placed a table upon it and
on that she put the cradle. The water on
the floor was already over her ankles, and the
house once or twice rocked SO that the
closet doors all few open. Then she heard
the same rasping and humping against the
wall, and looking out saw that large up