Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered

211/260She could lean against it and hold it down. The wind wasn’t quite sobad as it was anyway. The very thing. Poor Tea Cake!She crept on hands and knees to the piece of roofing and caughthold of it by either side. Immediately the wind lifted both of them andshe saw herself sailing off the fill to the right, out and out over thelashing water. She screamed terribly and released the roofing whichsailed away as she plunged downward into the water.“Tea Cake!” He heard her and sprang up. Janie was trying to swimbut fighting water too hard. He saw a cow swimming slowly towardsthe fill in an oblique line. A massive built dog was sitting on hershoulders and shivering and growling. The cow was approachingJanie. A few strokes would bring her there.“Make it tuh de cow and grab hold of her tail! Don’t use yo’ feet.Jus’ yo’ hands is enough. Dat’s right, come on!”Janie achieved the tail of the cow and lifted her head up along thecow’s rump, as far as she could above water. The cow sunk a little withthe added load and thrashed a moment in terror. Thought she was beingpulled down by a gator. Then she continued on. The dog stood upand growled like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, stiff muscles, teeth uncoveredas he lashed up his fury for the charge. Tea Cake split the waterlike an otter, opening his knife as he dived. The dog raced down theback-bone of the cow to the attack and Janie screamed and slipped farback on the tail of the cow, just out of reach of the dog’s angry jaws. Hewanted to plunge in after her but dreaded the water, somehow. TeaCake rose out of the water at the cow’s rump and seized the dog by theneck. But he was a powerful dog and Tea Cake was over-tired. So hedidn’t kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dogcouldn’t free himself either. They fought and somehow he managed tobite Tea Cake high up on his cheek-bone once. Then Tea Cake finished