last--over
the floors--through the chinks--up the seams--everywhere--do--do get up!
We shall all be--"

She stopped. A long-drawn sigh and a gentle "hush!" was all the reply
vouchsafed by Mrs Ravenshaw.

A quarter of an hour later Miss Trim came nervously back. "It's
_rushing_ in now like anything! Oh, _do_ get up! We may have to fly!
The boards of the floor have been forced up, and they've had to take the
door off its hinges--"

She stopped again. Mrs Ravenshaw, with placid face and closed eyes,
had replied with another gentle "hush-sh!"

Descending once more, Miss Trim was met by a sudden stream, which had
burst in the back door. Rushing again into the old lady's bedroom, she
cried vehemently, "Woman! _won't_ you get up?"

"Why should I?" asked the other in a sleepy tone. "Isn't Samuel looking
after it?"

"Of course he is, but--"

"Well, well," interrupted the old lady, a little testily, "if _he's_
there it's all right. _He_ knows what to do, I don't. Neither do you,
Miss Trim; so pray go away and let me sleep."

Poor Miss Trim retired discomfited. Afterwards when the family were
driven to the upper storey of the dwelling she learned to regard things
with something of Mrs Ravenshaw's philosophy.

One morning at daylight there was a calm so profound that the sleepers
at Willow Creek were not awakened until the sun rose in a cloudless sky
and glittered over the new-born sea with ineffable splendour. It was a
strange and sad though beautiful sight. Where these waters lay like a
sheet of glass, spreading out to the scarce visible horizon, the
grass-waves of the prairie had rolled in days gone by. There were still
some knolls visible, some tops of trees and bushes, like islets on the
sea, and one or two square masses of drift-wood floating slowly along
with the now imperceptible current, like boats under full sail. Here
and there could be seen several wooden houses and barns, some of which
had come down from the upper parts of the settlement, like the hut of
old Liz, and were stranded awkwardly on shoals, while others were still
drifting over the watery waste.

All this was clearly visible from the windows of the upper room, in
which slept the sisters Elsie and Cora, and presented itself to the
former when she awoke like a vision of fairyland. Unable to believe her
eyes, she rubbed them with her pretty little knuckles, and gazed again.

"How beautiful!" she exclaimed.

The exclamation awoke C