"Is she going?" asked Uncle Daniel at last, after a wait of several
minutes.

Daylight was there now; and was ever dawn more welcome in Meadow Brook!

"I'll go up to the pipes," volunteered John. "And I can see from there."

Now, the pipes were great water conduits, the immense black iron kind
that are used for carrying water into cities from reservoirs. They were
situated quite a way from the dam, but as it was daylight John could
see the gates as he stood on the pipes that crossed above the pond.

Usually boys could walk across these pipes in safety, as they were far
above the water, but the flood had raised the stream so that the water
just reached the pipes, and John had to be careful.

"What's that?" he said, as he looked down the raging stream.

"Something lies across the dam!" he shouted to the anxious listeners.

This was enough. In another minute every man was on the pond bank.

"The big elm!" they shouted. "It has saved the dam!"

What a wonderful thing had happened! The giant elm tree that for so
many, many years had stood on the edge of the stream, was in this great
flood washed away, and as it crossed the dam it broke the force of the
torrent, really making another waterfall.

"It is safe now!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel in surprise. "It was the tree
we heard crash against the bank. The storm is broken at last, and that
tree will hold where it is stuck until the force goes down. Then we can
open the gates."

To think that the houses were safe again! That poor Mrs. Burns could
come back to the old mill home once more!

"We must never have this risk again," said Mr. Mason to Uncle Daniel.
"When the water goes down we will open the gates, then the next dry
spell that comes when there is little water in the pond we will break
that dam and let the water run through in a stream. If the mill people
want water power they will have to get it some place where it will not
endanger lives."

Uncle Daniel agreed with Mr. Mason, and as they were both town
officials, it was quite likely what they said would be done in Meadow
Brook.

"Hey, Bert and Harry!" called Tom Mason, as he and Jack Hopkins ran
past the Bobbsey place on their way to see the dam. "Come on down and
see the flood."

The boys did not wait for breakfast, but with a buttered roll in hand
Harry and Bert joined the others and hurried off to the flood.

"Did the dam burst?" was the first question everybody asked along the
way, and when told