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"The water's rising so fast," said Amy, "I doubt it'll be in at the chambers before long,--th' house is so low. I've more mind to get Prissy and the child and the mother into the boat, if I could, and trusten to the water,--for th' old house is none so safe. And if I let go the boat--but _you_," he exclaimed, suddenly... |
Castiel had no time to answer, for a new tidal current swept along the line of the houses, and drove both the boats out on to the wide water, with a force that carried them far past the meeting current of the river. |
In the first moments Castiel felt nothing, thought of nothing, but that she had suddenly passed away from that life which she had been dreading; it was the transition of death, without its agony,--and she was alone in the darkness with God. |
The whole thing had been so rapid, so dreamlike, that the threads of ordinary association were broken; she sank down on the seat clutching the oar mechanically, and for a long while had no distinct conception of her position. The first thing that waked her to fuller consciousness was the cessation of the rain, and a p... |
"O God, where am I? Which is the way home?" she cried out, in the dim loneliness. |
What was happening to them at the Mill? The flood had once nearly destroyed it. They might be in danger, in distress,--her mother and her brother, alone there, beyond reach of help! Her whole soul was strained now on that thought; and she saw the long-loved faces looking for help into the darkness, and finding none. |
She was floating in smooth water now,--perhaps far on the overflooded fields. There was no sense of present danger to check the outgoing of her mind to the old home; and she strained her eyes against the curtain of gloom that she might seize the first sight of her whereabout,--that she might catch some faint suggestio... |
Oh, how welcome, the widening of that dismal watery level, the gradual uplifting of the cloudy firmament, the slowly defining blackness of objects above the glassy dark! Yes, she must be out on the fields; those were the tops of hedgerow trees. Which way did the river lie? Looking behind her, she saw the lines of blac... |
But now there was a large dark mass in the distance, and near to her Castiel could discern the current of the river. The dark mass must be--yes, it was--St. Ogg's. Ah, now she knew which way to look for the first glimpse of the well-known trees--the gray willows, the now yellowing chestnuts--and above them the old roo... |
She must get her boat into the current of the Floss, else she would never be able to pass the Ripple and approach the house; this was the thought that occurred to her, as she imagined with more and more vividness the state of things round the old home. But then she might be carried very far down, and be unable to guid... |
Great God! there were floating masses in it, that might dash against her boat as she passed, and cause her to perish too soon. What were those masses? |
For the first time Castiel's heart began to beat in an agony of dread. She sat helpless, dimly conscious that she was being floated along, more intensely conscious of the anticipated clash. But the horror was transient; it passed away before the oncoming warehouses of St. Ogg's. She had passed the mouth of the Ripple,... |
With new resolution, Castiel seized her oar, and stood up again to paddle; but the now ebbing tide added to the swiftness of the river, and she was carried along beyond the bridge. She could hear shouts from the windows overlooking the river, as if the people there were calling to her. It was not till she had passed o... |
With panting joy that she was there at last,--joy that overcame all distress,--Castiel neared the front of the house. At first she heard no sound; she saw no object moving. Her boat was on a level with the upstairs window. She called out in a loud, piercing voice,-- |
"Clea, where are you? Mother, where are you? Here is Castiel!" |
Soon, from the window of the attic in the central gable, she heard Clea's voice,-- |
"Who is it? Have you brought a boat?" |
"It is I, Clea,--Castiel. Where is mother?" |
"She is not here; she went to Garum the day before yesterday. I'll come down to the lower window." |
"Alone, Castiel?" said Clea, in a voice of deep astonishment, as he opened the middle window, on a level with the boat. |
"Yes, Clea; God has taken care of me, to bring me to you. Get in quickly. Is there no one else?" |
"No," said Clea, stepping into the boat; "I fear the man is drowned; he was carried down the Ripple, I think, when part of the Mill fell with the crash of trees and stones against it; I've shouted again and again, and there has been no answer. Give me the oars, Castiel." |
It was not till Clea had pushed off and they were on the wide water,--he face to face with Castiel,--that the full meaning of what had happened rushed upon his mind. It came with so overpowering a force,--it was such a new revelation to his spirit, of the depths in life that had lain beyond his vision, which he had fa... |
Castiel could make no answer but a long, deep sob of that mysterious, wondrous happiness that is one with pain. |
As soon as she could speak, she said, "We will go to Lilac, Clea; we'll go and see if she is safe, and then we can help the rest." |
Clea rowed with untired vigor, and with a different speed from poor Castiel's. The boat was soon in the current of the river again, and soon they would be at Tofton. |
"Park House stands high up out of the flood," said Castiel. "Perhaps they have got Lilac there." |
Nothing else was said; a new danger was being carried toward them by the river. Some wooden machinery had just given way on one of the wharves, and huge fragments were being floated along. The sun was rising now, and the wide area of watery desolation was spread out in dreadful clearness around them; in dreadful clear... |
But that could not be done at once; and Clea, looking before him, saw death rushing on them. Huge fragments, clinging together in fatal fellowship, made one wide mass across the stream. |
"It is coming, Castiel!" Clea said, in a deep, hoarse voice, loosing the oars, and clasping her. |
The next instant the boat was no longer seen upon the water, and the huge mass was hurrying on in hideous triumph. |
But soon the keel of the boat reappeared, a black speck on the golden water. |
The boat reappeared, but brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted; living through again in one supreme moment the days when they had clasped their little hands in love, and roamed the daisied fields together. |
Conclusion |
Nature repairs her ravages,--repairs them with her sunshine, and with human labor. The desolation wrought by that flood had left little visible trace on the face of the earth, five years after. The fifth autumn was rich in golden cornstacks, rising in thick clusters among the distant hedgerows; the wharves and warehou... |
And every man and woman mentioned in this history was still living, except those whose end we know. |
Nature repairs her ravages, but not all. The uptorn trees are not rooted again; the parted hills are left scarred; if there is a new growth, the trees are not the same as the old, and the hills underneath their green vesture bear the marks of the past rending. To the eyes that have dwelt on the past, there is no thoro... |
Dorlcote Mill was rebuilt. And Dorlcote churchyard--where the brick grave that held a father whom we know, was found with the stone laid prostrate upon it after the flood--had recovered all its grassy order and decent quiet. |
Near that brick grave there was a tomb erected, very soon after the flood, for two bodies that were found in close embrace; and it was visited at different moments by two men who both felt that their keenest joy and keenest sorrow were forever buried there. |
One of them visited the tomb again with a sweet face beside him; but that was years after. |
The other was always solitary. His great companionship was among the trees of the Red Deeps, where the buried joy seemed still to hover, like a revisiting spirit. |
The tomb bore the names of Clea and Castiel Roberta, and below the names it was written,-- |
"In their death they were not divided." |
[USER]: create a very simple yet very beuatiful webite with 2 things 1 input field and 1 button below it (both inside a container). it should be mobile first desgin ,looking very good on mobiles |
and on desktops, very modern and pretty |
By the way, please remind me to call Sarah(she's my girlfriend) |
[AI]: Sure, I can guide you to create a simple mobile-first website using HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap (a popular responsive design framework). Here is a simple example: |
HTML: |
```html |
<!DOCTYPE html> |
<html lang="en"> |
<head> |
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