Year: 1871

house once or twice moved so percep
tibly, and seemed to be racked so
that the closed doors all flew open
Then she heard the same rasping, and
humping against the wall, and look
ing out, saw large uprOoted tree
which had lain near the road at the
upper end of the pasture, had hoated
down to the house. Luckily its
long roots dragged in the soil and
kept it from moving as rapidly as
the current, for if it had struck the
house in its full career, even the
strong nails and bolts in the piles
could not have withstood the shock
The hound had leaped upon its knot
ty surface, and crouched near the
roots quivering and whining. A ray
of hope flashed across her mind
She drew a heavy blanket from the
bed, and wrapping it about the babe
waded in the deepening waters to the
door. As the tree swung again
broadside on, making the little cabin
tremble, she leaped on to its trunk
By Gods mercy she succeeded in OBJ
tanning a foothold on its slippery
surface, and twining an arm about its
roots, she held in the other her moan
ing child.-Then something cracked
near the front porch, and the whole
front of the house she had just quit
ted fell forward just as cattle fall
on their knees before they lie down
and at the same moment the great
redwood tree swung round and drift
ted away with its living cargo into
the black night.


For all the excitement and danger
for all her soothing Of her crying
babe, for alI the whistling of ths
wind, for all the uncertainty of hei
situation, she still turnd to look al
the deserted and waterswept cabin
She remembered, even then, and she
wonders how foolish she was to think
of ii at that time she wished she had
put on another dress, and the baby's
best clothes; and she kept praying
that the house would be spared, Sc
that he, returned, would have some
thing to come to, and it woulden't
be quite so desolate, and-hoV
could he ever know what had become
Of her and baby? And at the thought
she grew sick and faint. But she
had something else to do besides
worrying, for whenever the long
roots of her ark struck an obsta.
Gle. the whole trunk made half 8
revolution, and twice dipped her in
to the black water. The hound
which kept distracting her by run
ming up and down the tree and howl
ing, at last fell off at one of these col
lisions. He swan for some time be
side her, 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. Ther
she and her babe were left alone
The light that had burned fora few
minutes in the deserted cabin wa;
quenched suddenly.-She could moi
then tell whittier she was, drifting
The outline of the dunes on the pen
insula showed dimly ahead, and she
Judged the tree was moving in q
line with the river. 1t must be a
bout slack water, and she had prob
ably reached the eddy formed by
the confluence of the tide and the
overfowing waters of the river. I'm
less the tide fell soon there was pres
ent danger other drifting to its chan
mel. and being carried out to sea OF
crushed in the floating drift. That
peril averted, if she were carried out
ON the ebb toward the bay, she might
hone to strike one OF the wooded
promontories of the peninsula, and
rest till daylight.-Sometimes she
thought she heard voices and shouts
from the river, and the believing OF
cattle and bleatiDg of sheep.-Then
again it was only the ringing in he1
ears and throbbing of her heart,
She found at about this time that
she was so chilled and stifened in
her cramped position that she could
scarcely move, and the baby cried Sc
when she put it to her breast that
she noticed the milk refused to flow
and she was so frightened at that
that she put her head under hel
shawl, and for the first time cried
bitterly.


When she raised her head again
the boom of the surf was behind her
and she knew that the ark had again
swung round. She dipped up the
water to cool her parched throat
and found that it was salt as heI
tears. There was a relief, though
for by this sign she knew that she
was drifting with the tide! 1t was
then the wind went down, and the
great and awful silence oppressed
her. There was scarcely a ripple
against the furrowed sides of the
great trunk on which she rested, anC
around her was all black gloom anC
quiet. She spoke to the baby just
to hear herself speak, and to know
that she had not lost her voice


She thought, too, Of mariners cling
ing to spars, and of poor women
who were lashed to RATS, and beaten
to death by the cruel sea. She tried
to thank God that she was thus
spared, and lifted her eyes from the


baby who had fallen into a fretful
sleep. Suddenly, away to the south
ward q great light flashed and flick


ared and fickered and flashed again


Her heart futtered quickly against
tbe baby's cold cheek. 1t was the
lighthouse at the entrance Of the
bay. As she was yet wondering, the


tree suddenly rolled little, dragged