Perhaps my ancestors long ago had been caught in such cascades, for it was as if a voice spoke to me of my plight, informing me that, while I was still caught in the swirl of the stream’s overflow, I was also being carried ever downstream through the undertow and that as I was tumbled along the bottom, I would be thrown up to the daylight and life again if I could only endure. The voice spoke true, for I was. Again I gasped at the nourishing air and then plunged, unresisting, into the depths once more. But each cycle of water—bottom and air—was weaker. Finally the moment came when I could remain afloat and try to reach the shore. By then I was so weak, so bruised, so despairing, that I was quite ready to die, except for the fact that the overturned canoe came to my hand and I caught it by one side and kicked out with my legs and propelled it toward the dim gray haze that I knew to be the distant bank.

At one time, I think (for I can’t remember exactly what I felt on that long-ago day), I had wished for death to end the agony in my lungs. But now it was just the opposite. I cried out for life, now that there was time for a second breath, and even a third. To breathe without pain was a delight I had forgotten. But with this delight came another evil. I was so tired that the thought of sleep was a delicious promise I would have given all to collect. But I was able to resist its siren call and guide the overturned canoe into an eddy where I pulled it up onto the bank and collapsed, choking and puking. I wish I could say that I immediately hauled myself up a tree to search for my lost father and stepbrother, but I didn’t. I was so sick that it was all I could do to summon enough energy to rid myself of the inhalations of the stream I had sucked down into my lungs.

I was aroused by a voice shouting, almost in my ear, “Lizzy! Are you all right?”

I heaved myself to one elbow and saw my father, his clothing tattered and dripping, coming out of the bushes.

“I think so,” I gasped.

“Have you seen Tim?”

“No,” I said. “Oh, father, you’re hurt!”