rom the higher level,
which they had been eagerly seeking, and towards the channel of the
swollen river. The barge was first to feel its influence, and was
hurried towards the river against the strongest efforts of its boatmen.
One by one the other and smaller boats contrived to get into the slack
water of crossing streets, and one was swamped before his eyes. But
James Smith kept only the barge in view. His difficulty in following it
was increased by his inexperience in managing a boat, and the quantity
of drift which now charged the current. Trees torn by their roots from
some upland bank; sheds, logs, timber, and the bloated carcasses of
cattle choked the stream. All the ruin worked by the flood seemed to be
compressed in this disastrous current. Once or twice he narrowly escaped
collision with a heavy beam or the bed of some farmer's wagon. Once he
was swamped by a tree, and righted his frail boat while clinging to its
branches.

And then those who watched him from the barge and shore said afterwards
that a great apathy seemed to fall upon him. He no longer attempted to
guide the boat or struggle with the drift, but sat in the stern with
intent forward gaze and motionless paddles. Once they strove to warn
him, called to him to make an effort to reach the barge, and did what
they could, in spite of their own peril, to alter their course and help
him. But he neither answered nor heeded them. And then suddenly a great
log that they had just escaped seemed to rise up under the keel of his
boat, and it was gone. After a moment his face and head appeared above
the current, and so close to the stern of the barge that there was a
slight cry from the woman in it, but the next moment, and before the
boatman could reach him, he was drawn under it and disappeared. They lay
on their oars eagerly watching, but the body of James Smith was sucked
under the barge, and, in the mid-channel of the great river, was carried
out towards the distant sea.

*****

There was a strange meeting that night on the deck of a relief boat,
which had been sent out in search of the missing barge, between Mrs.
Smith and a grave and anxious passenger who had chartered it. When
he had comforted her, and pointed out, as, indeed, he had many times
before, the loneliness and insecurity of her unprotected life, she
yielded to his arguments. But it was not until many months after their
marriage that she confessed to him on that eventful night she thought