nother went to pieces. Many a house-roof offered itself for
the voyage; now and then a great water-wheel, horizontal and
helpless, devoured of its element. Once he saw a cradle come
gyrating along, and, urging all his might, intercepted it, but
hardly knew whether he was more sorry or relieved to find it empty.
When he was about half-way to the Mains, a whole fleet of ricks
bore down upon him. He boarded one, and scrambled to the top of it,
keeping fast hold of the end of his line, which unrolled from the
barrel as he ascended. From its peak he surveyed the wild scene.
All was running water. Not a human being was visible, and but a
few house-roofs, of which for a moment it was hard to say whether or
not they were of those that were afloat. Here and there were the
tops of trees, showing like low bushes. Nothing was uplifted except
the mountains. He drew near the Mains. All the ricks in the yard
were bobbing about, as if amusing themselves with a slow
contradance; but they were as yet kept in by the barn, and a huge
old hedge of hawthorn. What was that cry from far away? Surely it
was that of a horse in danger! It brought a lusty equine response
from the farm. Where could horses be with such a depth of water
about the place? Then began a great lowing of cattle. But again
came the cry of the horse from afar, and Gibbie, this time
recognizing the voice as Snowball's, forgot the rest. He stood up
on the very top of the rick and sent his keen glance round on all
sides. The cry came again and again, so that he was satisfied in
what direction he must look. The rain had abated a little, but the
air was so thick with vapour that he could not tell whether it was
really an object he seemed to see white against the brown water, far
away to the left, or a fancy of his excited hope: it might be
Snowball on the turn-pike road, which thereabout ran along the top
of a high embankment. He tumbled from the rick, rolled the line
about the barrel, and pushed vigorously for what might be the horse.

It took him a weary hour--in so many currents was he caught, one
after the other, all straining to carry him far below the object he
wanted to reach: an object it plainly was before he had got half-way
across, and by and by as plainly it was Snowball--testified to ears
and eyes together. When at length he scrambled on the embankment
beside him, the poor, shivering, perishing creature gave a low neigh
of delight: he did not