The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1893-02-17
FOLLOWING THE SEA.

ah phu biihu VI bhS biuHV uhlpnluuh
Of '6S," said Mr.. Swiddler William
swiddler. Of Calaveras--I was ut africa,
Peru. ] have not map by me, and am
not certain that africa is not in Chill, but
it can't make much difference; there was
earthquake all along there,
Sam Baxter was with us; think ho
had gone from San Francisco to make n
railway or something. On the morning
Of the quake, Sam and | had gone down
TO the beach to bathe. We had shed our
boots and began to moult, when there
was slight tremor of the earth, asif the
elephant who supports it was pushing
upward, or lying down and getting up
again Next, the surges, which were
Hattening themselves upon the sand and
dragging away such trifles as they could
lay hold Of, began racing out seaward, as
If they had received a dispatch that some
body was not expected TO live. This was
needless, for we did not expect to live.
When the sea had receded entirely out
OF sight we started after it, for, it will
be remembered, we had come to bathe,
and bathing without some kind of water
Ia not refreshing in hot climate.
For the first four or five miles the
walking was very difficult, although the
grade was tolerably steep. The ground
was soft; there were tangled forests Of
seaweed, old rotten ships, rusty anchors,
human skeletons and multitude Of
things to impede the pedestrian. The
f1oundering sharks bit our legs as we
toiled past them, and were constantly
clipping down upon the fiat fish strewn
about like orange peel on sidewalk,
Sam, too, had stuffed his shirt front with
such weight Of doubloons from the
wreck Of an old galleon that ! had to
help him across all the worst places. II
was very dispiriting.
Presently, away on the western hori-
zon, ] saw the sea coming back. IL oc-
CURED to me then that it did not wish il
to come back A tidal wave is nearly
always wet, aud was now good way
from home, with no means of making q
fire.
The same was true Of Sam, but he did
not appear to think Of it in that way.
He stood quite still moment with hi
ewes fixed on the advancing line OF
water; then turned to me, saying very
earnestly;
"Tell you what, William, | never
wanted ship so bad from the cradle tc
the gravel ! would give more for q
ship-more than for all the railways and
turnpikes you could scare up! Id give
more than u hundred, Thousand, million
dollars! would--l'd give all I'm worth
r-,iust--one--little-ship"
To show how lightly he could part
with his wealth, he lifted his shirt out
Of his trousers, unbosoming himself o.
ifis doubloons, which tumbled about hi
feet. golden storm
BY this q the tidal wave was clost
upon us. 'Oal that a wavel 1t was ont
solid green wall Of water, higher thar
Niagara Falls, stretching as far as W,
could see to right and left, without ,
break in It's towering 'front.' 1t was b,
no means clear what we ought to do
The moving wall showed no projection
by means Of which the most darint
climber could hope to reach the top
There was no ivy: there were no window
lodges. Stayl--there was the lightning
rod! No, there wasn't any lightning
rod. OF course notl
Looking despairingly upward, / mad,
atolerably good beginning ut thinking o
all the mean actions ! had wrought il
the flesh, when saw projecting beyont
the crest Of the wave ships bowsprit
with man sitting on it reading news
paperl Thank fortune, we were saved!
Falling upon our knees with tearfu
gratitude, we got up again and ran--ral
as fast as we could, | suspect; for nov
the whole forepart of the ship budgel
through the water just above our heads
and might lose its balance amy moment
II we had only brought along our um
brellasi
shouted to the man On the bowspri
to drop US line. He merely replie
that his correspondence was alread
very onerous, and he hadn't any pen an
ink.
Then ] told him wanted to 60
aboard. He said ! would find one o
the beach, about three leagues to tn
southland, wherethe Nancy Tucker wen
ashore.
At these replies ! was disheartened
1t was not 90 much that the man with
held assistance as that he made puns
Presently, however, he folded his news
srax,ax. mt n cafefftllv nxUav in hia noel,