shallower part
of the creek; when, suddenly throwing its upper end into the air with a
convulsive leap, it threatened utter destruction to the two devoted and
struggling objects in the water. For a moment it seemed poised; but,
losing its equilibrium, it fell obliquely into the stream, covering
William and his horse with the blinding spray; and before they could
regain their sight, the huge mass swang round with the current, and
entirely submerging them, swept them off with the flood, as they were
almost reaching the bank.

The cause of this grotesque manoeuvre on the part of the tree, we will
here explain. In approaching the broader and, consequently, shallower
part of the stream, its course had been arrested, by one of its sunken
branches coming in contact, and burying itself, in the soft bed of the
creek. The log, therefore, with the impetus it had gained in its
transit, thus suddenly brought to a stand, momentarily reared its head;
but almost instantly losing its equipoise, fell again sideways into the
stream; while the branch being still imbedded in the soft mud of the
bottom, the trunk naturally described a circle; and to all appearances
annihilated William and his horse.

Some time after this, how long he had not a remote idea, William, upon
returning to consciousness, found himself stretched upon the bank of the
creek; while the shades of night were fast closing in around him. What
he had experienced he shuddered to think of; though every circumstance
attending his late danger, and providential escape, segregated itself
from the chaotic mass in his brain, and laid before him a panorama of
his ordeal. In his mind, he had distinct visions, of having been, as it
were, grasped with a rough hand by the watery element, and drawn by the
demon of the flood to the depths of his cavernous home; while the
hissing of the water, which seemed to him at the time to rush into his
very soul, still sounded in his ears. To the fearful sensation of
oppression and smothering that first weighed in his heart, succeeded a
calm and tranquil sleep; from which he was aroused, by a repetition of
the noises of rushing waters in his ears; and the sensation of the
horrors of a mundane dissolution filled his mind. At that moment, his
head came in violent contact with some object; which, on the impulse of
the moment, he clutched with a drowning grasp; while with the friendly
aid of the pendent branch of a tree, he had an indistinct recollecti