, and she caught at and pressed my
shoulder as she passed; then with an activity I should not have expected
of her, she crept out of the window, my father holding her dress
tightly; there was a loud scrambling sound heard above the hissing and
roaring of the water, and my father spoke again.

"Safe!" he muttered. Then aloud, "Now, boys--both of you--up, and on to
the ridge."

"You first, Pomp," I said; and the boy scrambled out, and I followed,
the task being, of course, mere play to us as we crept up the
well-timbered roof, and got outside of the ridge-pole.

We had not been there a minute before Hannibal and my father were beside
us, and the waste of water all around.

"Not much too soon," said my father, cheerfully. "Do you see, George?"

"Yes, father," I said, feeling rather white, or as I suppose any one
would feel if he were white, for the water was level now with the bottom
of the window; "will it rise higher?"

"I am afraid so," he said, gravely, as he looked sharply round at the
various trees standing out of the water. "Yes," he continued, with the
firmness of one who has made his decision; "Morgan, you swim well, and
the current sets in the right direction. If the house gives way--"

"Oh, but it won't, sir; we made it too strong for that."

"Then if the water compels us to leave here, do you think you can
support your wife to that tree, if I swim beside and help you?"

"I will support her there, sir," said Morgan, firmly.

"That's right. Hannibal, you can easily reach there?"

"Yes, sah."

"And you boys can, of course. We may have to take to that tree, for I
think it will stand."

We all declared our ability to reach the new refuge, and Pomp gave me a
nod and a smile, for it was the tree we had before meant to reach; and
then we sat there awe-struck, and wondering whether the house would give
way, and be swept from its position.

But now no fresh waves came rolling out of the forest, only a current
swept gently past, and after a long silence my father said--

"Yes, that must be it. A terrible series of storms must have been
occurring, hundreds, perhaps a thousand miles away up in the highlands
and mountains, gathering force, till a flood has swept down to here like
a series of huge waves passing down the rivers, and flooding all their
banks. The first violence has passed, and I think we may hope that the
waters will go down as rapidly as they rose."

But his words did not seem likely