erhaps sent by
God in His mercy. That was indeed more than likely. The belief was at
once accepted that the rescuer was an angel from heaven. But just then
a lumberman stepped forward who had worked at the mill and said: "It was
Bonnyboy, Grim Carpenter's son. I saw him jump on his gray colt."

Bonnyboy, Grim Carpenter's son. It couldn't be possible. But the
lumberman insisted that it was, and they had to believe him, though,
of course, it was a disappointment. But where was Bonnyboy? He deserved
thanks, surely. And, moreover, that gray colt was a valuable animal. It
was to be hoped that it was not drowned.

The water had now subsided, though it yet overflowed the banks; so that
trees, bent and splintered by the terrific force of the flood, grew far
out in the river. The foul dams had all been swept away, and the tawny
torrent ran again with tumultuous rapids in its old channel. Of the
mills scarcely a vestige was left except slight cavities in the banks,
and a few twisted beams clinging to the rocks where they had stood. The
ruins of the village, with jagged chimneys and broken walls, loomed
out of a half-inundated meadow, through which erratic currents were
sweeping. Here and there lay a dead cow or dog, and in the branches of
a maple-tree the carcasses of two sheep were entangled. In this marshy
field a stooping figure was seen wading about, as if in search of
something. The water broke about his knees, and sometimes reached up to
his waist. He stood like one dazed, and stared into the brown swirling
torrent. Now he poked something with his boat-hook, now bent down and
purled some dead thing out of a copse of shrubbery in which it had
been caught. The sun rose higher in the sky, and the red vapors were
scattered. But still the old man trudged wearily about, with the stony
stare in his eyes, searching for him whom he had lost. One company after
another now descended from the hill-sides, and from the high-lying farms
which had not been reached by the flood came wagons with provisions and
clothes, and men and women eager and anxious to help. They shouted to
the old man in the submerged field, and asked what he was looking for.
But he only shook his head, as if he did not understand.

"Why, that is old Grim the carpenter," said someone. "Has anybody seen
Bonnyboy?"

But no one had seen Bonnyboy.

"Do you want help?" they shouted to Grim; but they got no answer.

Hour after hour old Grim trudged about in the chilly