Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/284

284THE HALLIG.

the wife thought of all the little articles indispensable
to her housekeeping, but there was no trace of any thing
with which she could hope to begin anew. One rouleau
of gold would have entirely outweighed all they had
both lost ; but the joy in what they had earned by care
and toil, the love of what was endeared to their hearts
by pleasant associations, the link with which habit
binds us to an article otherwise of little consequence,
the old familiar look of an object which, like a tried
friend, is connected with the joys and sorrows of our
every-day life — all these no money could restore. And
even if this had been possible, where was it to be ob-
tained ? Were they not standing there, poor and naked
indeed, with no prospect for the future, without know-
ing how to provide for the wants of the day ! Was it
not probable that they who had escaped the flood, would
now perish from cold and hunger ? Could they already
look trustfully over to the mainland coast from which
help was to be expected, before they knew how extensive
the inundation had been, how far it had swept away
dykes and embankments, and how far the charity and
means of their neighbors might reach, or how soon their
attention might be called to their situation ? As no
one in our own country could have foreseen that such
active benevolence would be exerted in behalf of the
halligs, and that such abundant relief would have flowed
in upon them as the event proved, how much less in
the first moment, in the full consciousness of their ter-
rible situation, could the unhappy inhabitants have ex-
pected it !
  Hold and his wife stood disconsolate on the site of
their former happiness, and their child cried with the