again, when Oliver gave him a
blanket: and once more he nodded good night, before he rolled himself up
in it under a neighbouring tree.

CHAPTER NINE.

ONE PRISONER RELEASED.

In the morning, it appeared that it had been right to remove to the
Red-hill the night before. Only some fragments of the roof of the house
remained. Some beams and a quantity of rubbish had fallen into the room
where the party had lived since the flood came; and a heap of this
rubbish lay on the very spot where Mildred would have been sleeping if
they had stayed. All saw and considered this with awe. Roger himself
looked first at the little girl, and then at that part of the ruin, as
if imagining what it would have been for her to be lying there, and
wondering to see her standing here, alive and unhurt.

"Look how that wall stands out;" said Oliver. "The faster the house
falls, the more haste we must make to save what we can."

"Oh! Cannot you stay quietly to-day?" asked Mildred. "I think we have
got all we really want; and this bustle and hurry and hard work every
day are so tiresome! Cannot we keep still and rest to-day?"

"To-morrow, dear," replied her brother. "To-morrow is Sunday! And we
will try to rest. But there is no knowing how long we may have to live
in this place, in the middle of the waters; and it is my duty to save
everything I can that can make George and you and the rest of us
comfortable when the colder weather comes on."

"I wonder what all the world is about, that nobody comes to see after
us," said Mildred, sighing.

"Out of sight, out of mind, Mildred," said Ailwin. "That is the way,
all the world over."

"I am sure it is not," said Oliver. "Mildred and I say as little as we
can about father and mother, but don't you imagine such a thing as that
they are out of our minds. I know Mildred never shuts her eyes, but she
sees the mill floating away, as it did that evening, and father
standing..."

He could not go on about that. Presently he said, "When the flood came,
I suppose, there were no boats to be had. It would take the first day
to bring them from a distance, and get them afloat. Then the people
would look round (as they ought to do) to see where they could do most
good. Nobody who looked through a glass this way, since the day before
yesterday, and saw those rafters sticking up in the air,--the house in
ruins as it is,--would suppose that any one could be left alive here.
From a dista