ied Flora, in trembling tones.

"I will if I can."

"O, do save her. It's terrible."

"She is clinging to a piece of wood, and has her head quite out of
water," I added, as I turned the raft.

The unfortunate person was still some distance farther up the stream
than the raft. I told Sim to trim the sail, and I hoped to get my clumsy
craft in such a position that the current would bring the woman towards
it, so that we could intercept her.

"Help! Help!" called the sufferer, in faint and fearful tones, as we
came nearer to her.

"Hold on a few moments longer," I replied.

"I can't!" she answered, evidently chilled by the cold, and exhausted by
her fruitless struggles.

"Only a moment," I added.

That moment was a fearfully long one, and at the end of it came failure.
The raft disappointed me. The current was bearing the helpless female by
it, but not more than fifty feet distant. It might as well have been a
mile, so far as our capacity to overcome the space between us was
concerned.

"Down with the sail, Sim!" I shouted, sharply.

"Hookie!" gasped Sim, still standing with his mouth wide open, gazing at
the poor woman.

"Down with it!" I repeated, giving him a kick to sharpen his wits.

He stumbled to the sail; but his fingers were all thumbs, and he could
not untie the halyard. I was obliged to do it myself, for the sail had
filled aback, and it was retarding the progress of the raft.

"Help! Save me!" cried the unhappy person again, but fainter than
before, as hope appeared to desert her.

"Hold on a moment more!" I shouted to her.

I grasped the steering oar, and vainly struggled to turn the raft, so as
to bring it near enough to the sufferer to enable me to haul her on
board; but the only effect was to cause it to whirl in the current. Both
the woman and our craft were carried along by the stream, fifty feet
apart; but neither had the power to approach any nearer to the other.

"I'm sinking!" called the woman, throwing one of her hands up into the
air.

"No! Hold on for your life!" I shouted, as loud as I could scream.

My voice had some effect upon her, for she grasped the stick to which
she was clinging.

"O, Buckland!" cried Flora, wringing her hands and sobbing hysterically.
"Can't you do something?"

"I can, and will!" I replied, with some of the earnestness that thrilled
my soul; and I felt that I ought to die myself rather than permit the
poor sufferer to perish before my eyes.

"