Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/273

273

THE FLOOD.

trembled from the shocks of the blast, most of them
went early and quietly to their beds. Hold sat up
somewhat later, occupied with some literary labor. His
wife was quietly sleeping in an adjoining chamber by
the side of her first-born.
  To Hold's surprise, Maria stepped softly into his room.
  "The water is rising very high," said she, with a
trembling voice.
 "What !" cried Hold, and then checked the exclam-
ation for fear that he might wake his wife.
  "It is not full flood till two o'clock ; and now it is
scarcely ten, and the wharf is even now nearly covered,"
continued Maria. "The waves are already beating
against Godber's house ; and one side of the wharf is
settling away. From my window, I saw him standing in
his door. He looked so fixedly over toward me."
  Hold sprang up hastily, and hurried with Maria to
the open door.
  A brilliant moon was pouring a dazzling light over
the ocean, Whose broad, full waves, foaming and dashing,
alternating in dark valleys and shining ridges, broke
around the scattered dwellings, and over each other, as
if one sea would drown another.
  "God be merciful to our poor souls this night !" cried
Hold, and looked anxiously back, as he thought of his
wife. She already stood behind him ; and with that
calmness which, in hours of the greatest danger, is
found almost more frequently in woman than in man,
she said, as she threw her arms about his neck :
  "At least, we shall die together, you and I, and our
child. I shall not be left behind, as once before, when
these waves threatened you."