A FEBRUARY FRESHET 



107 



1 '.the wrens among the reeds and calamus ; the 

 .of the mallow and wild roses along the high 

 banks ; the fishy ditches with their deep sluiceway 

 through the bank into the river; and the vast, vast 

 jtide-marshes that, to this day, seem to me to stretch 

 \ away to the very edge of the world. 



What a world for a boy to drive cows into every 

 fTJSJniorning, and drive them home from every night, 

 .as I used to help do ! or to trap muskrats in during 

 the winter; to go fishing in during the summer; to 

 go splashing up and down in when the great Febru- 

 ry freshet came on ! 



For of all the events of the year, none had such 

 ination for me as the high winds and warm 

 our that flooded the wharves, that drove the 

 V alien of the village out to guard the river-banks, 

 and that drowned out of their burrows and winter 

 -hiding-places all the wild things that lived within 

 ich of the spreading tide. 



The water would pour over the meadows and run 

 far back into the swamps and farm lands, setting 

 everything afloat that could float rails, logs, 

 branches; upon which, as chance offered, some 

 struggling creature would crawl, and drift away to 

 . safety. 



But not always to safety; for over the meadows 

 the crows and fish hawks, gulls, herons, bitterns, 

 and at night the owls, were constantly beating to 

 f pounce upon the helpless voyagers, even taking the 



