Year: 1871

strengthened her in that awful moment


shat Tear dropped from her like gar


ment and her trembling ceased. Il wa


then and thereafter that she never lost he


self command, through all the trials Of tha


gloomy night


She drew the bedstead toward the mid


die of the room, and placed table upor


1t and on that she put the cradle. Tn,


water on the floor was already over heI


ankles, and the house once or twice moved


so perceptibly, and seemed to be racked


so, that the closet doors all flew omen
, Then she heard the same rasping and


humping against the wall, and, lookinp


out saw that !. large uprooted tree. which


had lain near the road at the upper end OF


the pasture, had noated down to the house


Luckily Its long roots dragged in the soil


and kept 1t from moving as rapidly as the
current, for had 1t struck the house in Its


iull career, even the long nails and bolts


in the piles could not have withstood the
shock. The hound had leaped upon its
knotty surface, and crouched near the
roots shiverins anu winning. A ray OF
hope flashed across her mind She drew
a heavy blanket from the bed, and wrap
ping 1t about the babe, waded in the deep.
enlng waters to the door. As the tree
swung again, broadside on, making the
little cabin creak and tremble, she leaped
on to its trunk. BY Gods mercy she sue
ceeded in obtaining footing on its slip.
perry surface, and, twining an arm around
IT'S 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 quilted 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
| nriltp1 au ou xuifh ite liEircr int . I,
black night.


For all the excitement and danger, for
all her soothing of her crying babe, for all
the whistling of the wind, for all the un-
certainty of her situation, she still turned
to look at the deserted and water-swept
cabin. She remembered, even then, and
wonders how foolish she was to think of
it at that time, that she wished she had
put on another dress, and the baby's best
| clothes; and she kept praying that the
house would be spared, so that he, when
he returned, would have something to
come to, and it wouldn't be quite so desc
late, and-how 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 obstacle, the whole trunk made
half revolution, and twice dipped her in
the black water. The hound, which kept
distracting her by running up and down
the tree, and bowling, at last fell off at
one of these collisions. He swan for
some time beside 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. Then she and her
babe were left alone. The light which
had burned for few minutes in the de-
| serted cabin was quenched suddenly. She
| could not then tell whittier she was drift
ing. The outline of the white dunes on
the peninsula showed dimly ahead, and she
judged the tree was moving in line with
the river 1t must be about slack water,
and she had probably reached the eddy
formed by the confluence of the tide and
the overtlowing waters of the river. I'm
less the tide fell soon, there was present
danger of her drifting to its channel, and
being carried out to sea or crushed in the
floating drift. That peril ayerted, if she
were carried out on the ebb toward the
bay she might hope 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 bleating of sheep.
Then again it was only the ring
ing in her ears and throbbing of her
heart. She found at about this time that
she was so chilled and stiifened in her
cTamped position that she could scarcely
move, and the baby cried so 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 her
shawl, and for the first time cried bit
terly.


When she raised her head again, the
80 ,I.,, Ntr.1 hnVs nd oh
knew that her ark had again swung round.
She dipped up the water to cool her
parched throat, and found that it was salt
as her tears. There was relief, though,
for by this sign she knew that she was
drifting with the tide. 1t was then the
wind went down, and the crate and awful
silence oppressed her There was scarcely a
ripple against the turrowed sides of the
great trunk on which she rested, aud
around her was all black gloom and quiet.
She spoke to the baby just to hear herself
speak, and to know that she had not lost
her voice. She thought then-it was
queer, but she could not help thinking it
how awful must have been the night
when the great ship swung over the
Asiatic peak, and the sounds of creation
were blotted out from the world. She
thought, too, of mariners clinging 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 fretful sleep. Sud
denly, away to the southwark, a great
light lifted itself out of the gloom, and
flashed and flickered and flashed again.
Her heart fluttered quickly against the
baby's cold cheek. 1t was the lighthouse
at the entrance of the bay. AS she was
yet wondering, the tree suddenly rolled a
little, dragged little, and then seemed TO
lie quiet aud still She put out her hand
and the current gurgled against it. The !
tree was aground, and, by the position of
the light and the noise of the surf |
aground upon the Dedlow Marsh.


Had it not been for her baby who was
ailing and croupy, had it not been for the |
sudden drying up of that sensitive foun- |
tain, she would have felt safe and relieved |
Perhaps it was that which tended to make |
all her impressions mournful and gloomy |
AS the tide rapidly fell, great flock of !
black brant t1uttered by her, screaming
and crying Then the plOVer flew up and
piped mournfully, as they wheeled round |
the trunk, aud at last fearlessly lit upon it
like q gray cloud. Then the heron flew
over and around her, screaming and pro-
testing, and at last dropped its guant legs
only few yards from her. But, strangest
of all, a pretty white bird, larger than a
dove-like pelican, but not a pelican
circled around and around her At last it
Lit upon the rootlet of the tree, quite over
her shoulder. She put out her hand and
stroked its beautiful white neck, and it
never appeared to move 1t stayed there
so long that she thought she would lift up
the baby to see it, and try to attract her
attention. But when she did so, the child
was so chilled with the cold, and had such
a blue look upon the little lashes which it
didn't rise at all, that she screamed aloud,
and the bird flew away, and she tainted.


Well, that was the worst of it, and per-
haps not so much, after all, to any but
herself. For when she recovered her
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