t the seeds were sown.

The winter passed, and what a time Chad and Jack had, snaking logs out
of the mountains with two, four, six--yes, even eight yoke of oxen,
when the log was the heart of a monarch oak or poplar--snaking them to
the chute; watching them roll and whirl and leap like jack-straws from
end to end down the steep incline and, with one last shoot in the air,
roll, shaking, quivering, into a mighty heap on the bank of Kingdom
Come. And then the "rafting" of those logs--dragging them into the pool
of the creek, lashing them together with saplings driven to the logs
with wooden pins in auger-holes--wading about, meanwhile, waist deep in
the cold water: and the final lashing of the raft to a near-by tree
with a grape-vine cable--to await the coming of a "tide."

Would that tide never come? It seemed not. The spring ploughing was
over, the corn planted; there had been rain after rain, but gentle
rains only. There had been prayers for rain:

"O Lord," said the circuit-rider, "we do not presume to dictate to
Thee, but we need rain, an' need it mighty bad. We do not presume to
dictate, but, if it pleases Thee, send us, not a gentle sizzle-sizzle,
but a sod-soaker, O Lord, a gullywasher. Give us a tide, O Lord!"
Sunrise and sunset, old Joel turned his eye to the east and the west
and shook his head. Tall Tom did the same, and Dolph and Rube studied
the heavens for a sign. The school-master grew visibly impatient and
Chad was in a fever of restless expectancy. The old mother had made him
a suit of clothes--mountain-clothes--for the trip. Old Joel gave him a
five-dollar bill for his winter's work. Even Jack seemed to know that
something unusual was on hand and hung closer about the house, for fear
he might be left behind.

Softly at last, one night, came the patter of little feet on the roof
and passed--came again and paused; and then there was a rush and a
steady roar that wakened Chad and thrilled him as he lay listening. It
did not last long, but the river was muddy enough and high enough for
the Turner brothers to float the raft slowly out from the mouth of
Kingdom Come and down in front of the house, where it was anchored to a
huge sycamore in plain sight. At noon the clouds gathered and old Joel
gave up his trip to town.

"Hit'll begin in about an hour, boys," he said, and in an hour it did
begin. There was to be no doubt about this flood. At dusk, the river
had risen two feet and the raft was pulling at