Crossing the river to feed the pigs

Beula recalled an incident which took place when she and Lafar were living on the street behind the filter plant in Cliffside, a few houses above Nell and Roy Hill. She said Lafar kept pigs across the river behind their house. (This was possibly behind the house in which they had lived when they first moved to Cliffside.) He used a rowboat, which he kept tied down on the riverbank, to cross the river to take feed to the pigs each evening. He had taken the flu, was weak and dizzy, and had been unable go feed the pigs.

It had been raining and the river was up, but the pigs had been without food for some time. After it stopped raining, Beula bravely put her coat on and set out across the river in the rowboat to feed the pigs.

She was careful to row with the paddle first on one side of the boat, and then on the other, to keep a straight course. She said Lafar watched her from the window to be sure she made it safely across.

I asked what he could have done to save her if he had seen the boat capsize. She said she had asked him the same thing, and he answered that he would have got to her somehow.