She ran to the back door and threw it open, and saw nothing but water.

She ran to the side window, and throwing that open, she saw nothing but water.

Then she remembered hearing her husband once say that there was no danger in the tide, for that fell regularly, and people could calculate on it, and that he would rather live near the bay than the river, whose banks might overflow at any time.

But was it the tide?
So she ran again to the back door, and threw out a stick of wood.

It drifted away toward the bay.