t her
eyes, as if envying the chicks which hung there, or the hen which still
slept, with her head beneath her wing, out of present reach of the
flood.

Oliver disapproved of the plan of mounting on the furniture of the room.
It might be all very well, he said, if there were nothing better to be
done. But, by the time the water would reach the top of the chests, it
would be impossible to get out by the door. He thought it would be
wisest to reach the roof of the house while they could, and to carry
with them all the comforts they could collect, while they might be
removed in a dry condition. Ailwin agreed, and was going to throw open
the door, when Oliver stopped her hand.

"Why, Oliver," she cried, "you won't let one do anything; and you say,
all the time, that there is not a minute to be lost."

Oliver showed her that water was streaming in at the sides of the door,
a good way higher up than it stood on the floor. He said that the door
was a defence at present,--that the water was higher on the stairs than
in the room, and that there would be a great rush as soon as the door
should be opened. He wished, therefore, that the bedding, and the
clothes from the drawers, and all else that they could remove to the top
of the house, should be bundled up, and placed on the highest chest of
drawers, before the water should be let in. They must borrow the line
from the clothes' basket, to tie round George's waist, that they might
not lose him in the confusion. One other thing must be done: they must
rouse Roger, or he might be drowned.

Ailwin was anxious that this last piece of duty should be omitted:--not
that she exactly wished that Roger should be drowned,--at least, not
through her means; but she, ignorant as she was,--had a superstitious
feeling that Roger and his family had caused this flood, and that he
could save himself well enough, though he appeared to be sunk in a
drunken sleep. She indulged Oliver, however, so far as to help him to
seize the lad, neck and heels, and lay him, dripping as he was, upon the
table.

Before the bedding and clothes were all tied up, the door of the room
shook so as to threaten to burst in, from the latch giving way. It
struck everybody that the person who should open it would run the risk
of being suffocated, or terribly knocked about; and yet, it was hardly
wise to wait for its bursting. Oliver, therefore, tied a string to the
knob of the bolt, then slipped the bolt, to k