Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-09-06
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
with the Tide.

cousins and were perfectly delighted when
Maud's mother decided to take them to the
| Point for a month last summer.
Maud and Amy were two as happy girls
as | ever knew. till that evening when they
| frightened us all so with the result of their
disobedience.
They ought to have been happy, for there
were rides and walks every day through a
beautiful country, and you couldn't drop a
line from the old stone pier without pull
! ing up some kind Of fish ON your hook
1t was tide water ut the Point, and the
river ebbed and flowed like old ocean, five
miles away So there was delightful salt
water for bathing and the girls were al
ways ready for dip.
! But one thing they thought the best fun
of ali. There was never boating party
that did not manage TO squeeze Maud anu
Amy into some old corner of the boat.
Mrs. Wilkes had been very strict about
that boat never, on any account, were
they to go out alone. What tempted them
to push out for Just little bit" that
evening, | never knew. But they did, and,
as Maudie was a good rover, they stretched
the little bit quite up to the railway bridge.
The sun was dipping slowly, slowly into
his evening bath in the rough waters of
the WanOckanee. and leaving as his good
night a flaming glory of crimson and
gold Not only the floating clouds took
his colors, but all the sky was ablaze, and
the warm flush gloWed on the hillt0pS and
danced among the waving trees.
go, look, cried Amy, " a path Of glory
right out to sea-
Maud turned quickly a cleaning path
way Of crimson-tippcd waves and sitting,
golden sheen stretched down the broad
river, and was lost in the brighter light of
the western sky.
80, dear, wish you hadn't said that"
She replied, with an odd little shiver.
WHAT asked Amy surprised
"Why that about the path of glory"
answered Maud. 1t made me think of a
line of Gray's Elegy that was recited
last examination"
THE paths of glory lead but to the grave"
quoted Amy slowly. Maud Wilkes,
what a queer girl You are; | never should
have thought Of that. There! it's faded
| anyway !"
30 Maudie p with sudden start, see
where we are ~
And Maud looked with frightened eyes,
| for the girls as they rowed leisurely back
and watched the sunset, had not noticed
that the strong ebb tide sweeping out to
sea, had caught their little craft and was
bearing them down that path, now no
| longer ripping red and gold but a gray
and sullen flood that seemed to laugh
mockingly the effort ofthe slender little girl
| to row against 1t.
{" Go with the tide, but head for the
shore" said Amy, sitting in the bow,
watching with white face and terrified eyes
her cousin struggling with the oars. And
Maud tried 10 follow the advice, but the
waves ran 50 nigh the oars caught first on
one side and then the other, and at last
dropped from her tired hands.
II can't DO any more; we shall both
/ drown O dear Q mamma :" she sobbed
and threw herself down on the bottom of
| the boat. where Amy joined her. And
! there they both CrOuched and cried, while
/ the boat-which, providentially was broad
and t-bGttomed-rockeda and rolled and
! followed the rushing river further and fur
! tier from the Point. Suddenly Amy looked
up, and Maud thought she never should
/ forget ;he cry she gaye-a cry of such terror
and despair;
The sea fog The sea fog
Yes. therc il was, thc gray, impcnetablc
wall of fog shutting out earth and SKY as
/ it crept silently up the river. And crouch
! inc there in tie boat, the girls watched as
/ one by one the trees were swallowed by
| that rcmorsclcss glOOm-the banks were
gonc-and they were distinguishing
! how, they knew not-where, they could not
see. There was nothing but the cruel
water beneath them and the terrible fog
above and around them. All hope was lost
| that they might be seen from the shore and
rescued, or picked up by some vessel at the
! little port Of the rivers mouth.
AS we older folks stood watching the sun
set that evening at the Point some one dis
covered that the boat and the children were
/ missing. And soon all the guests We're "a
/ thered upon the old pier, stIalnInS Their
/ eyes up and down, but IN VAN. At last the
| keen eyes OF Captain keeIy, an old Whalcr,
! sp!ed a tiny spcck dipping and darling
away down the river
Mrs Wilkes caught his arm. Oh, are
they in it? My girls. are they safe IN the
| boat She cried.
The bronZcd and weather-bca-Cn Old man
| looked al the poor mother pitifully as he
answered in his old-fashioned manner,
Madam. cannot tell.
No one else could see the boat
There is q Spy-glasS at the house, cried
young Fred Kee!y, starting on u run to
fetch it, more TO do something than for any
thing else. Anything seemed better than
to stand idly there, watching our pets drift
ing, drifting away from Us.
Stop. my son, shouted the Captain in
his gruf' voice, grown hOarsc with forty
years of shouting above the din Of winds
and waves. Stop twill be useless
Useless, truly, for all eyes could see and
all hearts dread that awful gray wall that
crept 50 s;ealthily nearer and nearer, and
hid boat and river, earth and sky.
Mrs. Wilkes broke into a passion oi
weeping, and we led her gently indoors,
while the men remained 10 plan rescue.
The captain had soon given his orders, and
Fred and Horace Winters ram half mile
up to Fords, whcrc the nearest boat is
kept, and went bravely otlthrough all that
fog after the drifting boat, while the cap
tain mounted the old sorrcl pony that did
duty for a horse at the Point, and logged
of to Wan0ckancc Haven. Though what
good l can do there gets me, he muJtegcd.
All night long we wandered from room
10 room Of the great house. and questioned
each other of what the morning would
bring. or swang up to see if somebody had
not come with tiding>, or peered out INFO
the utter darkness, hoping in vain TO see
the first faint streaks ofdawn.
At last the morning came. gray and
cherries, for ,he fox Still huns over rs and
no news had reached Us from down the
river Captain keely came canterins home,