CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013522341 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
THE 
 
 SETTLERS AT HOME 
 
 HARRIET MARTINEAU 
 
 WITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY P. BBBUTT 
 
 LONDON 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited 
 
 broadway, ludgate hill 
 
 Manchester and New York 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 Uniform with this Volume. 
 
 THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE. 
 FEATS ON THE FIORD. 
 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 THE BILLOW AND THE ROCK. 
 
 •i, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. — THE SETTLERS AT HOME 
 
 II. —NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES 
 
 III. — ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR 
 
 IV. — A HUNGRY DAY . 
 
 V. — SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS . 
 
 VI. — ROGER HIS OWN MASTER . 
 
 VII. — ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER 
 
 VIII. NEW QUARTERS . 
 
 IX. ONE PRISONER RELEASED 
 
 X. — GRAVES IN THE LEVELS 
 
 XI. — MORE HARDSHIP . 
 
 XII. — NEWS. , . . . 
 
 Pagt 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 42 
 
 6t 
 
 78 
 107 
 122 
 
 J 53 
 168 
 196 
 208 
 220 
 
MRS. LINACRE AT THE WELL. 
 
 THE 
 
 SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TWO hundred years ago, the Isle of Axholme was one 
 
 of the most remarkable places in England. It is not 
 
 an island in the sea. It is a part of Lincolnshire— a piece 
 
 of land hilly in the middle, and surrounded by rivers. The 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Trent runs on the east side of it ; and some smaller rivers 
 formerly flowed round the rest of it, joining the Humber to 
 the north. These rivers carried down a great deal of mud 
 with them to the Humber, and the tides of the Humber 
 washed up a great deal of sea-sand into the mouths of the 
 rivers ; so that the waters could not for some time flow freely, 
 and were at last prevented from flowing at all : they sank 
 into the ground, and made a swamp of it — a swamp of many 
 miles round the hilly part of the Isle of Axholme. 
 
 This swamp was long a very dismal place. Fish, and 
 water-birds, and rats inhabited it ; and here and there stood 
 the hut of a fowler, or a peat-stack raised by the people who 
 lived on the hills round, and who obtained their fuel from 
 the peat-lands in the swamp. There were also, sprinkled 
 over the district, a few very small houses — cells belonging to 
 the Abbey of St. Mary at York. To these cells some of the 
 monks from St. Mary's had been fond of retiring, in old 
 time, for meditation and prayer, and doing good in the 
 district round ; but when the soil became so swampy as to 
 give them the ague, as often as they paid a visit to these 
 cells, the monks left off their practice of retiring hither ; and 
 their little dwellings stood empty, to be gradually overgrown 
 with green moss and lank weeds, which no hand cleared 
 away. 
 
 At last a Dutchman, having seen what wonders were done 
 in his own country by good draining, thought he could ren- 
 der this district fit to be inhabited and cultivated ; and he 
 made a bargain with the King about it. After spending much 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 money, and taking great pains, he succeeded. He drew the 
 waters off into new channels, and kept them there by sluices, 
 and by carefully watching the embankments he had raised. 
 The land which was left dry was manured and cultivated, 
 till, instead of a reedy and mossy swamp, there were fields 
 of clover and of corn, and meadows of the finest grass, with 
 cattle and sheep grazing in large numbers. The dwellings 
 that were still standing were made into farm-houses, and new 
 farm-houses were built. A church here and a chapel there 
 was cleaned, and warmed, and painted, and opened for 
 worship; and good roads crossed the district into all the 
 counties near. 
 
 Instead of being pleased with this change, the people of 
 the country were angry and discontented. Those who lived 
 near had been long accustomed to fishing and fowling in the 
 swamp, without paying any rent, or having to ask anybody's 
 leave. They had no mind now to settle to the regular toil- 
 some business of farming, — and to be under a landlord, to 
 whom they must pay rent. Probably, too, they knew nothing 
 about farming, and would have failed in it if they had tried. 
 Thus far they were not to be blamed. But nothing can ex- 
 ceed the malignity with which they treated the tenants who 
 did settle in the isle, and the spiteful spirit which they 
 showed towards them on every occasion. 
 
 These tenants were chiefly foreigners. There was a civil 
 war in England at that time; and the Yorkshire and Lincoln- 
 shire people were so much engaged in fighting for King 
 Charles or for the Parliament, that fewer persons were at 
 
 I 2 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME, 
 
 liberty to undertake new farms than there would have been 
 in a time of peace. When the Dutchman and his com 
 panions found that the English were not disposed to occupy 
 the Levels (as the drained lands were called), they en- 
 couraged some of their own countrymen to come over. 
 With them arrived some few Frenchmen, who had been 
 driven from France into Holland, on account of their being 
 Protestants. From first to last, there were about two 
 hundred families, Dutch and French, settled in the Levels. 
 Sorne were collected into a village, and had a chapel opened) 
 where a pastor of their own performed service for them. 
 Others were scattered over the district, living just where 
 their occupations required them to settle. 
 
 All these foreigners were subject to bad treatment from 
 their neighbours ; but the stragglers were the worst off, 
 because it was easiest to tease and injure those who lived 
 alone. The disappointed fishers and fowlers gave other 
 reasons for their own conduct, besides that of being nearly 
 deprived of their fishing and fowling. These reasons were 
 all bad, as reasons for hating always are. One excuse was 
 that the new settlers were foreigners : — as if those who were 
 far from their own land did not need particular hospitality 
 and kindness. Another plea was that they were connected 
 with the King, by being settled on the lands which he had 
 bargained to have drained ; so that all who sided with the 
 Parliament ought to injure the new tenants, in order to 
 annoy the King. If the settlers had tried to serve the King 
 by injuring his enemies, this last reason might have passed 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 5 
 
 in a time of war. But it was not so. It is probable that the 
 foreigners did not understand the quarrel. At any rate, 
 they took no part in it. All they desired was to be left in 
 peace, to cultivate the lands they paid rent for. But, instead 
 of peace, they had little but persecution. 
 
 THE MILLER. 
 
 One of these settlers, Mr. Linacre, was not himself 
 a farmer. He supplied the farmers of the district with 
 a manure of a particular kind, which suited some of the 
 richest soils they cultivated. He found, in the red soil of the 
 isle, a large mass of that white earth, called gypsum, which, 
 when wetted and burnt, makes plaster of Paris ; and which, 
 when ground, makes a fine manure for some soils, as the 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME 
 
 careful Dutchman well knew. Mr. Linacre set up a windmill 
 on a little eminence which rose out of the Level, just high 
 enough to catch the wind; and there he ground the gypsum 
 which he dug from the neighbouring patch or quarry. He 
 had to build some outhouses, but not a dwelling-house ; for, 
 near his mill, with just space enough for a good garden 
 between, was one of the largest of the old cells of the monks 
 of St. Mary's, so well built of stone, and so comfortably 
 arranged, that Mr. Linacre had little to do but to have it 
 cleaned and furnished, and the windows and doors made 
 new, to fit it for the residence of his wife and children and 
 a servant. 
 
 This building was round, and had three rooms below, 
 and three over them. A staircase of stone was in the very 
 middle, winding round, like a corkscrew — leading to the 
 upper rooms, and out upon the roof, from which there was 
 a beautiful view, — quite as far as the Humber to the north- 
 east, and to the circle of hills on every side. Each of the 
 rooms below had a door to the open air, and another to the 
 staircase ;— very unlike modern houses, and not so fit as 
 they to keep out wind and cold. But for this, the dwelling 
 would have been very warm, for the walls were of thick 
 stone ; and the fireplaces were so large, that it seemed as if 
 the monks had been fond of good fires. Two of these 
 lower rooms opened into the garden; and the third, the 
 kitchen, into the yard;— so that the maid, Ailwin, had not 
 far to go to milk the cow and feed the poultry 
 
 Mrs. Linacre was as neat in the management of her 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 house as people from Holland usually are ; and she did not 
 like that the sitting-room, where her husband had his meals 
 and spent his evenings, should be littered by the children, 
 or used at all by them during her absence at her daily 
 occupation, in the summer. So she let them use the third 
 room for their employments and their play. Her occu- 
 pation, every summer's day, was serving out the waters from 
 a mineral spring, a good deal frequented by sick people, 
 three miles from her house, on the way to Gainsborough. 
 She set off, after an early breakfast, in the cool of the 
 morning, and generally arrived at the hill-side where the 
 spring was, and had unlocked her little shed, and taken out 
 her glasses, and rinsed them, before any travellers passed. 
 It was rarely indeed that a sick person had to wait a minute 
 for her appearance. There she sat, in her shed when it 
 rained, and under a tree when it was fine, sewing or knitting 
 very diligently when no customers appeared, and now and 
 then casting a glance over the Levels to the spot where her 
 husband's mill rose in the midst of the green fields, and 
 where she almost fancied sometimes that she could see the 
 children sitting on the mill steps, or working in the garden. 
 When customers appeared, she was always ready in a moment 
 to serve them ; and her smile cheered those who were sick, 
 and pleased those who came merely from curiosity. She 
 slipped the halfpence she received into a pocket beneath 
 her apron ; and sometimes the pocket was such a heavy one 
 to carry three miles home, that she just stepped aside to the 
 village shop at Haxey, or into a farm-house where the 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 people would be going to market next day, to get her 
 copper exchanged for silver. Since the times had become 
 so troubled as they were now, however, she had avoided 
 showing her money anywhere on the road. Her husband's 
 advice was that she should give up attending the spring 
 altogether ; but she gained so much money by it, and it was 
 so likely that somebody would step into her place there as 
 soon as she gave it up, so that she would not be able to 
 regain her office when quieter times should come, that she 
 entreated him to allow her to go on while she had no fears 
 She took the heavy gold ear-rings out of her ears, wore a 
 plainer cap, and left a large silver watch at home ; so that 
 she looked like a poor woman whom no needy soldier or 
 bold thief would think of robbing. She guessed by the sun 
 what was the right time for locking up her glasses, and 
 going home ; and she commonly met her husband, coming 
 to fetch her, before she had got half-way. 
 
 The three children were sure to be perched on the top 
 of the quarry bank, or on the mill steps, or out on the roof 
 of the house, at the top of the winding staircase. Little 
 George himself, though only two years old, knew the very 
 moment when he should shout and clap his hands, to make 
 his mother wave her handkerchief from the turn of the road. 
 Oliver and Mildred did not exactly feel that the days were 
 too long while their mother was away, for they had plenty to 
 do; but they felt that the best part of the day was the hour 
 between her return and their going to bed; and, unlike 
 people generally, they liked winter better than summer, 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 because at that season their mother never left them, except 
 to go to the shop or the market at Haxey. 
 
 MILDKED SEEKING ASSISTANCE. 
 
 Though Oliver was only eleven, and Mildred nine, they 
 were not too young to have a great deal to do. Oliver was 
 really useful as a gardener; and many a good dish of vege- 
 tables of his growing came to table in the course of the year. 
 Mildred had to take care of the child almost all day; she 
 
io THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 often prepared the cabbage, and cut the bacon for Ailvvin to 
 broil. She could also do what Ailwin could not — she could 
 sew a little; and now and then there was an apron or a hand- 
 kerchief ready to be shown when Mrs. Linacre came home 
 in the evening. If she met with any difficulty in her job, the 
 maid could not help her, but her father sometimes could; 
 and it was curious to see Mildred mounting the mill when 
 she was at any loss, and her father wiping the white plaster 
 off his hands, and taking the needle or the scissors in his 
 great fingers, rather than his little girl should not be able to 
 surprise her mother with a finished piece of work. Then, 
 both Oliver and Mildred had to learn their catechism, to say 
 to Pastor Dendel on Sunday; and always a copy or an exercise 
 on hand, to be ready to show him when he should call ; and 
 some book to finish that he had lent them to read, and that 
 others of his flock would be ready for when they had done. 
 Besides all this, there was an occupation which both boy 
 and girl thought more of than of all others together. Among 
 the loads of gypsum that came to the mill, there were often 
 pieces of the best kind — lumps of real fine alabaster. Ala- 
 baster is so soft as to be easily worked. Even a finger-nail 
 will make a mark upon it. Everybody knows how beautiful 
 vases and little statues, well wrought in alabaster, look on a 
 mantelpiece or a drawing-room table. Oliver had seen such 
 in France, where they are very common ; and his father had 
 carried one or two ornaments of this kind into Holland, when 
 he had to leave France. It was a great delight for Oliver to 
 find, on settling in Axholme, that he could have as much 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. n 
 
 alabaster as he pleased, if he could only work it. With a 
 little help from Pastor Dendel and his father, he soon learned 
 to do so; and of all his employments, he liked this the best. 
 Pastor Dendel brought him a few bowls and cups of pretty 
 shapes and different sizes, made of common wood by a turner 
 who was one of his flock; and Oliver first copied these in 
 clay, and then in alabaster. By degrees he learned to vary 
 his patterns, and at last to make his clay models from fancies 
 of his own — some turning out failures, and others prettier 
 than any of his wooden cups. These last he proceeded to 
 carve out of alabaster. 
 
 Mildred could not help watching him while he was about 
 his favourite work, though it was difficult to keep little George 
 from tossing the alabaster about, and stamping on the best 
 pieces, or sucking them. He would sometimes give his 
 sister a few minutes' peace and quiet by rolling the wooden 
 bowls the whole length of the room, and running after them; 
 and there was also an hour, in the middle of the day, when 
 he went to sleep in his large Dutch cradle. At those times 
 Mildred would consult with her brother about his work ; or 
 sew and watch him by turns; or read one of the pastor's 
 little books, stopping occasionally to wonder whether Oliver 
 could attend at once to his carving and to what she was 
 reading. When she saw that he was spoiling any part, or 
 that his hand was shaking, she would ask whether he had 
 not been at work long enough ; and then they would run out 
 to the garden or the quarry, or to jump George (if he was 
 awake again) from the second mill step. 
 
y.a THE SETTLERS AT HOME, 
 
 One fine month of August, not a breath of wind had been 
 blowing for a week or two, so that the mill-sails had not 
 made a single turn ; not a load of gypsum had been brought 
 during the time, and Oliver was quite out of alabaster; 
 though, as it happened, he much wanted a good supply, for 
 a particular reason. Every morning he brought out his 
 tools ; and every morning the sky was so clear, the corn- 
 fields so still — the very trees so silent — that he wondered 
 whether there had ever been so calm a month of August 
 before. His father and he employed their time upon the 
 garden, while they had so good an opportunity. Before it 
 was all put in order, and the entire stock of autumn cabbages 
 set, there came a breezy day ; and the children were left to 
 finish the cabbage patch by themselves. While they were 
 at work it made them merry to hear the mill-sails whirring 
 through the air, and to see, at intervals, the trees above the 
 quarry bowing their heads, and the reeds waving in the 
 swamp, and the water of the meadow ponds dimpling and 
 rippling, as the wind swept over the Levels. Oliver soon 
 heard something that he liked better still— the creak of the 
 truck that brought the gypsum from the quarry, and the 
 crack of the driver's whip. 
 
 He threw down the dibble with which he was planting out 
 his cabbages, tripped over the line he had set to direct his 
 drilling, tumbled on his face, scrambled up again, and ran, 
 rubbing the dirt from his knees as he went, to look out some 
 alabaster from the load. 
 
 Mildred was not long after him, though he called to her 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 13 
 
 that she had better stay and finish the cabbages ; and though 
 little George, immediately on feeling himself at liberty, threw 
 himself upon the fresh mould of the cabbage bed, and amused 
 himself with pulling up, and flinging right and left, the plants 
 that had just been set. How could Mildred attend to this, 
 when she was sure she was wanted to turn over the gypsum, 
 and see what she could find ? So Master George went on 
 with his pranks, till Ailwin, by accident, saw him from the 
 yard, ran and snatched him up, flung him over her shoulder, 
 and carried him away screaming, till, to pacify him, she set 
 him down among the poultry, which he presently found more 
 amusing than young cabbage plants. 
 
 " Now we shall have a set of new cups for the spring, pre- 
 sently," said Oliver, as he measured lump after lump with 
 his little foot rule. 
 
 "Cups for the waters !" exclaimed his father. "So that 
 is the reason of this prodigious hurry, is it, my boy? You 
 think tin cups not good enough for your mother, or for her 
 customers, or for the waters. Which of them do you think 
 ought to be ashamed of tin cups ? " 
 
 "The water, most of all. Instead of sparkling in a clear 
 bright glass, it looks as nasty as it tastes in a thing that is 
 more brown and rusty every time it is dipped. I will give 
 the folk a pair of cups that shall tempt them to drink — a pair 
 of cups as white as milk.'' 
 
 " They will not long remain white j and those who broke 
 the glasses will be the more bent upon spoiling your cups 
 the more painj you spend upon them." 
 
U THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " I hope the Redfurns will not happen to hear of them. 
 We need not blab ; and the folk who drink the waters go 
 their way as soon as they have done." 
 
 "Whether the Redfurns be here or there, my boy, there 
 is no want of prying eyes to see all that the poor foreigners 
 do. Your mother is watched, it is my belief, every time she 
 dips her cup ; and I in the mill, and you in the garden. 
 There is no hope of keeping anything from our enemies." 
 
 Seeing Oliver look about him uneasily, Mr. Linacre re- 
 proached himself for having said anything to alarm his timid 
 boy; so he added what he himself always found the most 
 comforting thought, when he felt disturbed at living among 
 unkind neighbours. 
 
 " Let them watch us, Oliver. We do nothing that we need 
 be ashamed of. The whole world is welcome to know how 
 we live — all we do, from year's end to year's end." 
 
 " Yes, if they would let us alone, father. But it is so hard 
 to have our things broken and spoiled ! " 
 
 " So it is ; and to know what ill-natured talk is going on 
 about us. But we must let them take their own way, and 
 bear it as well as we can ; for there is no help for it." 
 
 " I wish I were a justice ! " cried Mildred. " How I would 
 punish them, every one ! " 
 
 "Then I wish you were a justice, my dear; for we cannot 
 get anybody punished as it is." 
 
 " Mildred," said Oliver, " I wish you would finish the cab- 
 bages. You know they must be done, and I am very busy." 
 
 " Oh, Oliver ! I am such a little thing to plant a whole 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 15 
 
 cabbage-bed. You will be able to come by-and-bye ; I want 
 to help you." 
 
 " You cannot help me, dear ; and you know how to do 
 the cabbages as well as anybody. You really cannot help 
 me." 
 
 "Well, I want to see you, then." 
 
 " There is nothing to see yet. You will have done, if you 
 make haste, before I begin to cut. Do, dear ! " 
 
 " Well, I will," replied Mildred, cheerfully. 
 
 Her father caught her up, and gave her one good jump 
 down the whole flight of steps, then bidding her work away 
 before the plants were all withered and dead. 
 
 She did work away, till she was so hot and tired that she 
 had to stop and rest. There were still two rows to plant, and 
 she thought she would never get through them ; or, at any 
 rate, not before Oliver had proceeded a great way with his 
 carving. She was going to cry, but she remembered how 
 that would vex Oliver ; so she restrained herself, and ran to 
 ask Ail win whether she could come and help. Ail win always 
 did what everybody asked her, for she gave over sorting 
 feathers, and left them all about, while she went down the 
 garden. 
 
 Mildred knew she must take little George away, or he 
 would be making confusion among the feathers that had 
 been sorted. She invited him to go with her, and peep 
 over the hedge at the geese in the marsh ; and the little 
 fellow took her forefinger, and trotted away with his sister 
 to the hedge. 
 
1 6 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 There were plenty of water-fowl in the marsh ; and there 
 were something else which Milfred did not seem to like. 
 While George was quack-quacking, and making himself as 
 like a little goose as he could, Mildred softly called to Ailwin, 
 and beckoned her to the hedge. Ailwin came, swinging the 
 great spade in her right hand, as easily as Milfred could 
 flourish George's whip. 
 
 " Look, — look there ! — under that bank, by the dyke ! " 
 said Mildred, as softly as if she had been afraid of being 
 heard at a yard's distance. 
 
 "Eh! look — if it be not the gipsies !" cried Ailwin, almost 
 as loud as if she had been talking across the marsh. " Eh, 
 dear ! we have got the gipsies upon us now ; and what will 
 become of my poultry ? Yon is a gipsy tent, sure ; and we 
 must tell the master and mistress, and keep an eye on the 
 poultry. Sure, yon is a gipsy tent." 
 
 Little George, thinking that everybody was very much 
 frightened, began to roar ; and that made Ailwin talk louder 
 still, to comfort him ; so that nothing that Mildred said was 
 heard. At last, she pulled Ailwin's apron, so that the tall 
 woman stooped down to ask what she wanted. 
 
 " I do not think it is the gipsies," said she. " I am afraid 
 it is worse than that. I am afraid it is the Redfurns. This 
 is just the way they settle themselves — in just that sort of 
 tent — when they come to fowl, all autumn." 
 
 " If I catch that Roger," said Ailwin, " I '11 " And 
 
 she clenched her hand, as if she meant to do terrible things 
 if she caught Roger. 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 17 
 
 " I will go and call father, shall I ? " said Mildred, her 
 teeth chattering, as she stood in the hot sun. 
 
 She was turning to go up the garden, when a laugh from 
 George made her look back again. She saw a head covered 
 with an otto-skin cap, — the face looking very cross and 
 threatening, peeping over the hedge, — which was so high 
 above the marsh, that the person must have climbed the 
 bank on purpose to look into the garden. There was no 
 mistaking the face. It was certainly Roger Redfurn, the 
 plague of the settlers, who, with his uncle Stephen Redfurn, 
 was always doing all the mischief he could to everybody 
 who, as he had said, trespassed on the marshes. Nobody 
 liked to see the Redfurns sitting down in the neighbourhood, 
 and still less, skulking about the premises. Mildred flew 
 towards the mill ; while Ailwin, who never stopped to con- 
 sider what was wise, and might not, perhaps, have hit upon 
 wisdom if she had, took up a stone, and told Roger he had 
 better be gone, for that he had no friends here. Roger 
 seemed to have just come from some orchard; for he pulled 
 a hard apple out of his pocket, aimed it at Ailwin's head, 
 and struck her such a blow on the nose as made her eyes 
 water. While she was wiping her eyes with her apron, and 
 trying to see again, Roger coaxed the child to bring him his 
 apple again, and disappeared. 
 
 When Mildred reached the mill, she found Pastor Dendel 
 there, talking with her father about sending some manure to 
 his land. The pastor was so busy, that he only gave her a 
 nod; and she had therefore time to recover herself, instead 
 
 2 
 
IS THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 of frightening everybody with her looks and her news at 
 once. Oliver could not stay in the house while the pastor 
 was at the mill ; so he stood behind him, chipping away at 
 the rough part of his work. Mildred whispered to him that 
 the Redfurns were close at hand. She saw Oliver turn very 
 red, though he told her not to be frightened. Perhaps the 
 pastor perceived this too, when he turned round, for he 
 said, 
 
 "What is the matter, children? Mildred, what have you 
 been doing, that you are so out of breath? Have you been 
 running all the way from Lincoln spire ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; not running, — but " 
 
 "The Redfurns are come, sir,'' cried Oliver. "Father, 
 the Redfurns are come." 
 
 " Roger has been peeping over the hedge into the garden," 
 cried Mildred, sinking into tears. 
 
 The miller looked grave, and said here was an end of all 
 peace for some time to come. 
 
 " Are you all at the mercy of a boy like Roger Redfurn," 
 asked the pastor, " so that you look as if a plague had come 
 with this fresh breeze ? " 
 " And his uncle, sir." 
 "And his aunt/' added Mildred. 
 
 " You know what Stephen Redfurn is, sir," observed Mr. 
 Linacre. " Roger beats even him for mischief. And we are 
 at their mercy, sir. There is not a magistrate, as you know, 
 that will hear a complaint from one of us against the country 
 people. We get nothing but trouble, and expense, and 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 '9 
 
 ridicule, by making complaints. We know this beforehand, 
 for the triumph is always on the other side." 
 
 " It is hard," said the pastor : " but still,— here is only a 
 
 PASTOR T5ENDET, PAYS A VISIT TO THE MTIX. 
 
 man, a woman, and a boy. Cannot you defend yourselves 
 against them ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; because they are not an honourable enemy," 
 replied Mr. Lin acre. " If Stephen would fight it out with 
 me on even ground, we would see who would beat ; and I 
 daresay my boy there, though none of the roughest, would 
 
 2—2 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 stand up against Roger. But such fair trials do not suit 
 them, sir. People who creep through drains to do us mis- 
 chief, and hide in the reeds when we are up and awake, and 
 come in among us only when we are asleep, are a foe that 
 may easily ruin any honest man, who cannot get protection 
 from the law. They houghed my cow two years ago, sir." 
 
 " And they mixed all mother's feathers for the whole year," 
 exclaimed Mildred. 
 
 "And they blinded my dog/' cried Oliver; — "put out its 
 eyes." 
 
 "Oh ! what will they do next?" said Mildred, looking up 
 through her tears at the pastor. 
 
 " Worse things than even these have been done to some 
 of the people in my village," replied the pastor ; "and they 
 have been borne, Mildred, without tears." 
 
 Mildred made haste to wipe her eyes. 
 
 "And what do you think, my dears, of the life our Pro- 
 testant brethren are leading now, in some parts of the 
 world ? " 
 
 " Father came away from France because he was ill used 
 for being a Protestant," said Oliver. 
 
 "The pastor knows all about that, my boy," observed 
 Mr. Linacre. 
 
 " Yes, I do," said the pastor. " I know that you suffered 
 worse things there than here ; and I know that things worse 
 than either are at present endured by our brethren in 
 Piedmont. You have a warm house over your heads, and 
 you live in sunshine and plenty. They are driven from 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 their villages with fire and sword— forced to shelter among 
 the snow-drifts, and pent up in caves till they rush out 
 starving, to implore mercy of their scoffing persecutors. 
 Could you bear this, children ? " 
 
 "They suffer these things for their religion," observed 
 Oliver. " They feel that they are martyrs." 
 
 " Do you think that there is comfort in that thought, — in 
 the pride of martyrdom, — to the son who sees his aged 
 parents perish by the wayside, — to the mother whose infant 
 is dashed against the rock before their eyes ? " 
 
 " How do they bear it all, then ? " 
 
 "They keep one another in mind that it is God's will, my 
 dears ; and that obedient children can, if they try, bear all 
 that God sees fit to lay upon them. So they praise His 
 name with a strong heart, though their voices be weak. 
 Morning and night, these mountains echo with hymns ; 
 though death, in one form or another, is about the sufferers 
 on every side." 
 
 "My dear," said Mr. Linacre, "let us make no more 
 complaints about the Redfurns. I am ashamed, when I 
 think of our brethren abroad, that we ever let Stephen and 
 Roger put us up to anger. You will see no more tears 
 •here, sir, I hope." 
 
 "Mildred will not quite promise that," said the pastor, 
 smiling kindly oa the little girl. " Make no promises, my 
 dear, that a little girl like you may be tempted to break. 
 Only try to forgive all people who tease and injure you ; 
 and remember that nothing more ever happens than God 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 permits, — though He does not yet see fit to let us know 
 why." 
 
 " I would only just ask this, sir,'' said Mr. Linacre. " Is 
 there anything going forward just now which particularly 
 encourages our enemies to attack us ? " 
 
 " The Parliament have a committee sitting at Lincoln, at 
 present; and the King's cause seems to be low in these 
 parts. We are thus at the mercy of such as choose to 
 consider us King's men; but there is a higher and truer 
 mercy always about us." 
 
 The miller took off his hat in token of respect. 
 The pastor's eye had been upon Oliver for some time. 
 He now asked whether he meant to make his new cups 
 plain, like all the rest, or to try to ornament them. Mildred 
 assured him that Oliver had carved a beading round the two 
 last bowls that he had cut. 
 
 " I think you might attempt something far prettier than 
 beading," said the pastor, " particularly with so many patterns 
 before your eyes to work by." 
 
 He was looking up at the little recess above the door of 
 the house, near which they were standing. This recess, in 
 which there had formerly been an image, was surrounded 
 with carved stonework. 
 
 "I see some foliage there which would answer your 
 purpose, Oliver, if you could make a model from it. Let us 
 look closer." 
 
 And Pastor Dendel fixed a short ladder against the house 
 wall, and went up, with Oliver before him. They were so 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME 
 
 busy selecting the figures that Oliver thought he could copy, 
 and drawing them upon paper, and then setting about 
 modelling them in clay, that the Redfurns did not prevent 
 their being happy for this day, at least. Mr. Linacre, too, 
 was hard at work all day grinding, that the pastor's manure 
 might be served to-morrow; and he found hard work as 
 good for an anxious mind as those who have tried generally 
 find it to be. 
 
-Si/^^^teSM 
 
 J '- 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 
 
 When Mrs. Linacre was told in the evening of the arrival 
 of the disagreeable .neighbours who were in the marsh, she 
 was sorry ; but when she had gone round the premises with 
 her husband at night, and found all safe, and no tokens of 
 any intrusion, she was disposed to hope that the Redfurns 
 would, this time, keep to their fishing and fowling, and make 
 no disturbance. Oliver and Mildred crept down to the 
 garden hedge at sunrise, and peeped through it, so as to see 
 all that was doing in the carr, as the marsh was called.* 
 After watching some time, they saw Stephen and Roger creef 
 out from under the low brown tent. As the almost level sun 
 shone full in their faces, they rubbed their eyes ; then they 
 stretched and yawned, and seemed to be trying hard to wake 
 themselves thoroughly. 
 
 * In that part of the country, a carr means a morass. 
 24 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 25 
 
 " They have been sound asleep, however," observed Oliver 
 ■to his sister ; " and it is still so early, ftiat I do not believe 
 they have been abroad about mischief in the night. They 
 would not have been awake yet if they had." 
 
 " Look ! there is a woman," exclaimed Mildred. " Is 
 that Nan?" 
 
 "Yes; that is Nan Redfurn, — Stephen's wife. That is 
 their great net that she has over her arm. They are going 
 to draw the oval pond, I think. We can watch their sport 
 nicely here. They cannot see an inch of us." 
 
 " But we do not like that they should watch us," said 
 Mildred, drawing back. " We should not like to know that 
 they were peeping at us from behind a hedge." 
 
 " We should not mind it if we were not afraid of them," 
 replied Oliver. " It is bacause they plot mischief that we 
 cannot bear their prying. We are not going to do them any 
 mischief, you know ; and they cannot mean to make any 
 secret of what they are doing in the middle of the carr, with 
 high ground all about it." 
 
 Satisfied by this, Mildred crouched down, with her arm 
 about her brother's neck, and saw the great net cast, and the 
 pond almost emptied of its fish, — some few being kept for 
 food, and the small fry — especially of the stickleback — being 
 thrown into heaps, to be sold for manure. 
 
 " Will they come this way when they have done drawing 
 the pond?" asked Mildred, in some fear, as she saw them 
 moving about. 
 
 " I think they will sweep the shallow waters there to the 
 
26 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 left for more stickleback," replied Oliver. " They will make 
 up a load to sell before the heat of the day, before they set 
 about anything else." 
 
 Oliver was right. All the three repaired to the shallow 
 water, and stood among the reeds, so as to be half hidden. 
 The -children could see, however, that when little George 
 came down the garden, shouting to them to come to break- 
 fast, the strangers took heed to the child. They turned 
 their heads for a moment towards the garden, and then 
 spoke together and laughed. 
 
 " There, now ! " cried Oliver, vexed : " that is all because 
 we forgot to go to breakfast. So much for my not having a 
 watch ! Mother need not have sent George to make such a 
 noise , but if I had had a watch, he would not have come 
 at all, and these people would not have been put in mind of 
 us." 
 
 "You will soon be able to have a watch now, like the 
 boys in Holland," said Mildred. "Your alabaster things 
 will change away for a watch, will they not? But we might 
 not have remembered breakfast, if you had had a watch." 
 
 "We are forgetting it now,'' said Oliver, catching up 
 George, and running to the house, followed by Mildred, w ho 
 could not help feeling as if Roger was at her heels. 
 
 They were surprised to find how late it was. Their father 
 was already gone with Pastor Dendel's load of manure. 
 Their mother only waited to kiss them before she went, and 
 to tell them that their father meant to be back as soon as he 
 could ; and that, meantime, neighbour Gool had promised 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 27 
 
 to keep an eye on the mill. If anything happened to frighten 
 them, Oliver or Ailwin had only to set the mill-sails a-going, 
 and neighbour Gool and his men would be with them pre- 
 sently. She did not think, however, that anything would 
 happen in the little time that their father would be away. 
 
 " I will tell you what we will do," cried Oliver, starting 
 from his chair, after he had been eating his bread and milk 
 in silence for some time, after his mother's departure. " Let 
 us dress up a figure to look like father, and set him at the 
 mill window, so that those Redfurns shall not find out that 
 he is away. Won't that be good ? " 
 
 " Put him on the mill steps ; they may not look up at the 
 window." 
 
 " The mill steps, then. Where is father's old hat ? Put 
 it on the broom there, and see how it looks. Run up to 
 the mill, dear, and bring his jacket — and his apron," he 
 shouted, as his sister ran. 
 
 Mildred brought both, and they dressed up the broom. 
 "That will never do," said Mildred. "Look how the 
 sleeves hang, and how he holds his head. It is not a bit 
 like a man ! " 
 
 'T is a good scarecrow," declared Ailwin. " I have seen 
 many a worse scarecrow than that." 
 
 " But this is to scare the Redfurns, and they are far wiser 
 than crows," said Mildred. " Look how George pulls at the 
 apron, and tugs at the broomstick behind ! It does not 
 scare even him." 
 
 " It will look very different on the steps, in the open air" 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Oliver declared. "A bunch or two of straw in the sleeves 
 and under the jacket will make it seem all alive." 
 
 And he carried it out, and tied it upon the mill steps. It 
 was no easy matter to fasten it so as to make it look at all 
 like a man naturally mounting stairs. The more difficult it 
 was, however, the more they all became interested in the 
 business. Mildred brought straw, and Ailwin tied a knot 
 here, and another knot there, while Oliver cocked the hat in 
 various directions upon the head, till they all forgot what they 
 were dressing up the figure for. The reason popped into 
 Ailwin's head again, when she had succeeded in raising the 
 right arm to the rail, in a very lifelike manner. 
 
 "There.'" said she, stepping backwards to view her work, 
 "that makes a very good master for me. I will obey him in 
 everything he bids me till master comes home.'' 
 
 At the same moment, she walked backwards against some- 
 thing, and, little George clung screaming to Mildred's knees. 
 Roger had spread his arms for Ailwin to walk back into; and 
 Stephen was behind, leaning against the cowshed. They had 
 been watching all that the party had been doing, and, having 
 overheard every word, had found out the reason. 
 
 The children saw at once how very foolish they had been; 
 and the thought confused them so much, that they did not 
 know what to do next. Poor Ailwin, who could never learn 
 wisdom, more or less, now made matters worse by all she said 
 and did. Stout and strong as she was, she could do nothing, 
 for Roger had taken the hint she had given by walking back- 
 wards, with her arms crossed behind her; he had pinioned 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 
 
 her. She cried out to Oliver to run up, and set the mill-sails 
 a-going, to bring neighbour Gool. Stephen took this second 
 hint. He quietly swung Oliver off the steps, sent down his 
 
 ATLWIN TN DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 scarecrow after him, and himself took his seat on the threshold 
 of the mill. There he sat, laughing to see how Ailwin wearied 
 herself with struggles, while Roger, by merely hanging on her 
 arms, prevented her getting free. When, however, Oliver 
 
30 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 flew at the boy, and struck him some fierce blows, Stephen 
 came down, drove the little girl and the baby into the house, 
 and locked them in, and then went to help Roger with his 
 strong arm. 
 
 It was clear to Mildred what she ought to do. Crying as 
 she was, she put George in a corner, with some playthings, to 
 keep him from the fire till she came to him again, and then 
 mounted the stairs as quickly as her trembling limbs would let 
 her — first to her mother's room, and then out upon the roof. 
 She tied a large red handkerchief of her mother's upon her 
 father's Sunday walking-stick, and then waved it, as high as 
 she could hold it, above her head, while she considered how 
 she could fasten it; for it would never do to leave George 
 alone below for many minutes. Perhaps neighbour Gool had 
 seen it already, and would soon be here with his men. But, 
 lest he should not, she must fix her flag, and trust to Stephen 
 and Roger not thinking of looking up to the roof from the 
 yard below. At last, after many attempts, she thrust the stick 
 into a crevice of the roof, and fixed it with heavy things round 
 it — having run down three or four times to see that George 
 was safe. 
 
 There was indeed no time to be lost, for the intruders 
 below were doing all the mischief they could think of, short 
 of robbing and burning the premises. The great tall man, 
 Stephen, strolling about the lower rooms, found Mrs. 
 Linacre's knitting, and pulled out the needles, and un- 
 ravelled the work. Roger spied a heap of bulbs on the 
 corner of a high shelf. They were Mr. Linacre's rare and 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 31 
 
 valuable tulip-roots, brought from Holland. Roger cut one 
 of them open, to see what it looked like, and then threw the 
 whole lot into the boiler, now steaming over the fire, saying 
 the family should have a dish the more at dinner to-day. 
 They got hold of Oliver's tools, and the cup that he was at 
 work upon. Stephen raised his arm, about to dash the cup 
 to the ground, when Oliver sprang forward, and said, 
 
 " You shall have it, — you shall have my cup ; — you don't 
 know what a beauty it will be when it is done. Only let me 
 finish it, and you shall have it in exchange for the sticklebat 
 you caught this morning. The sticklebat will do to manure 
 our garden ; and I am sure you will like the cup, if you will 
 only let me finish it." 
 
 " Manure your garden, indeed ! " cried Stephen, gruffly ; 
 "I'll cut up your garden to shreds first. What business 
 has your garden in our carr ? You and your great landlord 
 will find what it is to set your outlandish plants growing 
 where our geese ought to be grazing. We '11 show you that 
 we don't want any foreigners here; and if you don't like our 
 usage, you may go home again ; and nobody will cry for you 
 back." 
 
 "We pay for our garden and our mill," said Oliver. 
 " We wrong nobody, and we work for our living, and you are 
 a very cruel man." 
 
 " You pay the King, and the Parliament does not choose 
 that the King should have any more money to spend 
 against them. Mind you that, boy ! And " 
 
 "I am sure I don't know anything about the King and 
 
32 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Parliament, or any such quarrels," said Oliver. " It is very 
 hard to punish us for them, it is very cruel." 
 
 "You shall have reason to call me cruel twenty times 
 over, if you don't get away out of our carr," said Stephen. 
 " Manure your garden, indeed ! Not I ! And you shall 
 not manure another yard in these Levels. Come here, 
 Roger." 
 
 They went out again into the yard, and Oliver, now quite 
 overcome, laid down his head upon his arms, and cried 
 bitterly. 
 
 " Here 's your cup, however," said Ailwin, now released 
 by Roger's being employed elsewhere. "This bit of plaster 
 is the only thing they have laid hands on that they have 
 not ruined." 
 
 Oliver started up, and hid his work and tools in a bundle 
 of straw in the corner of the kitchen. 
 
 " What Mildred will say, I don't know," said Ailwin. 
 " That boy has wrung the neck of her white hen." 
 
 Oliver was desperate on hearing this. He ran out to see 
 whether he could not, by any means, get into the mill, to set 
 the sails a-going; but there were Stephen and Roger, car- 
 rying water, which they threw over all the gypsum that was 
 ground, — floating away as much as they could of it, and 
 utterly spoiling the rest, by turning it into a plaster. 
 
 "Did you ever see the like?" cried Ailwin. "And there 
 is nothing master is so particular about as keeping that stuff 
 dry. See the woman, too ! How I 'd like to tug the hair 
 off her head ! She looks badly, poor creature, too." 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 33 
 
 Stephen's wife had, indeed, come up to enjoy the sport, 
 when she found that no man was on the premises, and that 
 there was no danger. There she stood, leaning against a 
 post of the mill, her black untidy hair hanging about her 
 pale hollow cheeks, and her lean arms crossed upon her 
 bosom. 
 
 "There were such ague-struck folk to be seen at every 
 turn," said Ailwin, "before the foreigners came to live in 
 the carr. I suppose they brought some healing with them ; 
 for one does not often see now such a poor creature as that. 
 She might be ashamed of herself— that woman ; she laughs 
 all her poor sides can, at every pailful Roger pours 
 out. Eh ! but she 's not laughing now ! Eh ! what 's the 
 matter now?" 
 
 The matter was that neighbour Gool was in sight, with 
 three or four men. A cheer was heard from them while 
 they were still some way off. Oliver ran out and cheered, 
 waving his hat over his head. Ailwin cheered, waving a 
 towel out of the window. Mildred cheered from the roof, 
 waving her red flag; and George stood in the doorway 
 shouting and clapping his little hands. 
 
 If the object was to catch the trespassers, all this cheering 
 took place a little too soon. Stephen and Roger were off, 
 like their own wild ducks, — over the garden hedge, and out 
 of sight. Neighbour Gool declared that if they were once 
 fairly among the reeds in the marsh, it would be sheer waste 
 of time to search for them ; for they could dodge and live 
 in the water, in a way that honest people that lived on 
 
 3 
 
34 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 proper hard ground could not follow. Here was the 
 woman; and yonder was the tent. Revenge might be taken 
 that way, better than by ducking in the ponds after the man 
 and boy. Suppose they took the woman to prison, and 
 made a great fire in the carr, of the tent and everything in 
 it! 
 
 Oliver did not see that it could make up to them for what 
 they had lost, to burn the tent ; and he was pretty sure his 
 father would not wish such a thing to be done. His father 
 would soon be home. As for the woman, he thought she 
 ought to go to prison, if Mr. Gool would take her there. 
 
 " That I will," said Gool. " I will go through with the 
 thing now I am in it. I came off the minute I saw your 
 red flag; and I might have been here sooner, if I had not 
 been so full of watching the mill-sails, that I never looked 
 off from them till my wife came to help to watch. Come, 
 you woman," said he to Nan Redfurn, "make no faces 
 about going to prison, for I am about to give you a ride 
 there." 
 
 "She looks very ill," thought Oliver — "not fit to be 
 jolted on a horse." 
 
 "You'll get no magistrate to send me to prison," said 
 the woman. " The justices are with the Parliament — every 
 one. You will only have to bring me back, and be sorry 
 you caught me, when you see what comes of it." 
 
 "Cannot we take care of her here till father comes 
 home?" said Oliver, seeing that neighbour Gool looked 
 perplexed, and as if he believed what the woman said. 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 
 
 35 
 
 "No, no," said Mildred, whispering to her brother. "Don't 
 let that woman stay here." 
 
 "Neighbour Gool will take care ot us till father comes 
 home,'' said Oliver ; " and the woman looks so ill. We can 
 
 CAPTORS AND CAPTIVE. 
 
 lock her up here; and, you see, Ailwin is ever so much 
 stronger than she is, poor thing." 
 
 Neighbour Gool put on an air of being rather offended 
 that nothing great was to be done after his trouble in coming 
 to help. In his heart, however, he was perhaps not very 
 
36 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 sorry ; for he knew that the magistrates were not willing to 
 countenance the King's settlers in the Levels ,while the Par- 
 liament Committee was sitting at Lincoln. Gool patted 
 Oliver's head when the boy thanked him for coming, and 
 he joked Mildred about her flag, so he could not be very 
 cross. He left two men to guard the prisoner and the pre- 
 mises till Mr. Linacre should return. 
 
 These two men soon left off marching about the garden 
 and yard, and sat down on the mill-steps, for the day grew 
 very hot. There they sat, talking in the shade, till their 
 dinners should be ready. Nan Redfurn was so far from 
 feeling the day to be hot, that, when her cold ague-fit came 
 on, she begged to be allowed to go down to the kitchen fire. 
 Little George stood staring at her for some time, and then 
 ran away ; and Mildred, not liking to be in the same room 
 with a woman who looked as she did, and who was a prisoner, 
 stole out too, though she had been desired to watch the 
 woman till dinner should be ready. Ailwin was so struck 
 with compassion, that she fetched her warmest woollen 
 stockings, and her winter cloak of linsey-woolsey, — it was 
 such a piteous thing to hear a woman's teeth chattering in 
 her head in that way at noon in the middle of August. 
 Having wrapped her up, she put her on a stool close to the 
 great kitchen fire, and drew out the screen that was used only 
 in winter, to keep off the draughts from the door. If the poot 
 soul was not warm in that corner, nothing could make her 
 so. Then Ailwin began to sing, to cheer her heart, and to 
 be amazingly busy in cooking dinner for three additional 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 37 
 
 persons. She never left off her singing but when she went 
 out for the vegetables, and other things she wanted for her 
 cooking; and when she came in again she resumed her 
 song,— still for the sake of the poor creature behind the 
 screen. 
 
 " Do you feel yourself warmer now, neighbour? " said she 
 at the end of an hour. " If not you are past my under- 
 standing." 
 
 There was no answer ; and Ailwin did not wonder, as she 
 said to herself, that it was too great a trouble for one so 
 poorly to be answering questions, so Ailwin went on slicing 
 her vegetables and singing. 
 
 " Do you think a drop of cherry-brandy would warm you, 
 neighbour ? " she asked, after a while. " I wonder I never 
 thought of that before ; only it is a sort of thing one does 
 not recollect till -winter comes. Shall I get you a sup of 
 cherry-brandy ? " 
 
 Ailwin thought it so odd that such an offer as this should 
 not be replied to, that she looked hastily behind the screen, 
 to see what could be the reason. There was reason enough. 
 Nobody was there. Nan Redfurn had made her way out as 
 soon as she found herself alone, and was gone, with Ailwin's 
 best winter stockings and linsey-woolsey cloak. 
 
 In a minute the whole party were looking over the hedge 
 into the marsh. Nothing was to be seen but the low brown 
 tent and a heap of little fish. Neither man, woman, nor boy 
 appeared when their names were shouted forth. 
 
 " Oh, my best stockings! " said Ailwin, half crying. 
 
38 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " You have saved your cherry-brandy, my woman, that is 
 certain," observed one of Gool's men. 
 
 " I shall never have any pleasure in it," sighed the maid. 
 " I shall never enjoy it, on account of its reminding me how 
 yon woman has fooled me." 
 
 " Then we will save you that pain," said the man. " If you 
 will oblige us with it to-day, we won't leave any to pain you 
 in the winter." 
 
 " For shame! " cried Oliver, " when you know she has lost 
 her stockings and her cloak already; and all out of kindness ! 
 I would not drink a drop of her cherry-brandy, I am sure." 
 
 " Then you shall, Oliver, for saying so, and taking my part," 
 said Ailwin. " I am not going to give it to any one else that 
 has not the ague ; some people may be assured of that." 
 
 " If I thought there was any cherry-brandy for me when 
 I came back," said the man, throwing a stone down to try the 
 nature of the bog-ground beneath," I would get below there 
 and try what I could find. I might lay hold of a linsey- 
 woolsey cloak somewhere in the bog." 
 
 " You can never catch the Redfurns, I doubt," said Ailwin. 
 •'What was it they said to you, Oliver, as they were going off?" 
 
 " They laughed at me for not being able to catch eels, and 
 asked how I thought I should catch them. They said when 
 I could decoy wild-fowl I might set a trap for the Redfurns. 
 But it does not follow that that is all true because they said 
 it. I don't see but they might be caught, if there was any 
 one to do us justice afterwards. That's the worst part of it, 
 father says." 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 39 
 
 "There's father!" cried Mildred, as the crack o'f a whip 
 was heard. All started off, as if to see who could carry bad 
 news fastest. All arrived in the yard together, except Ailwin, 
 who turned back to take up George, as he roared at being left 
 behind. 
 
 "there's father!" 
 
 " We must want a wise head or two among us," said the 
 vexed miller. "If we were as sharp as these times require, 
 we surely could not be at the mercy of folk we should scorn 
 to be like. We must give more heed, and see what is to be 
 
 done." 
 
 "Rather late for that, neighbour, when here is the stock you 
 were grinding and grinding for a week, all gone to plaster," said 
 one of Gool's men. 
 
40 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " That is what I say," replied the miller, contemplating the 
 waste; "but it maybe better late than not at all." 
 
 Mrs. Linacre was more affected than her husband by what 
 had happened. When she came home, poor Mildred's forti- 
 tude had just given way, and she was crying over the body 
 of her dear white hen. This caused Ailwin's eyes to fill at 
 the thought of her stockings and cloak, so that the family 
 faces looked cheerless enough. 
 
 " We deserve it all," said Mrs. Linacre, " for leaving our 
 place and our children to the care of Gool's men, or of any- 
 body but ourselves. I will go no more to the spring. I have 
 been out of my duty; and we may be thankful that we have 
 been no further punished." 
 
 As she spoke, a few tears started. Her tears were so rare, 
 that the children looked in dismay at their father. 
 
 He gently declared that the more injury they suffered from 
 the country people, the more they needed all the earnings 
 they could make. They must cling to the means of an 
 honest maintenance, and not throw away such an employ- 
 ment as hers. He would not leave the children again while 
 the Redfurns were in the neighbourhood. He would not 
 have left them to-day, to serve any one but the pastor ; nor to 
 serve even him, if he had not thought he had bespoken suffi- 
 cient protection. Nothing should take him from home, or his 
 eye off the children, to-morrow, she might depend upon it. 
 
 Mrs. Linacre said that if she must go, she should take a 
 heavy heart with her. This was, she feared, but the first of 
 a fresh series of attacks. If so, what might not they look 
 
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES. 41 
 
 for next ? However, she only asked to be found in her duty. 
 If her husband desired her to go, she would go; but she 
 should count over the hours of the day sadly enough. 
 
 Oliver ventured to bring up an old subject. He said, 
 what he most wanted was to have earned money enough to 
 get a watch. He was sure he could hide it so that Roger 
 should never guess he had one ; and it would be such a 
 comfort to know exactly how the time was going, and when 
 to look for his mother home, instead of having to guess, 
 in cloudy weather, the hour of the day, and to argue the 
 matter with Ailwin, who was always wrong about that par- 
 ticular thing. 
 
 His father smiled mournfully, as he observed, that he 
 hoped Oliver would never so want bread as to leave off 
 longing for anything made of gold or silver. 
 
 NAN RF.DFUEN. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 
 
 Mrs. Linacre went to the spring as usual, the next morn- 
 ing. If the weather had been doubtful — if there had been 
 any pretence for supposing that the day might not be fine, she 
 would have remained at home. But she looked in vain all 
 round the sky for a cloud ; and the wide expanse of fields 
 and meadows in the Levels, with their waving com and fresh 
 green grass, seemed to bask in the sunshine, as if they felt its 
 luxury. It was a glowing August day — just such a day as 
 would bring out the invalids from Gainsborough to drink the 
 waters — just such a day as would tempt the traveller to stop 
 under the shady shed, where he could see waters bubbling up, 
 and taste of the famous medicinal spring, which would cure 
 the present evil of heat, whatever effect it might have on any 
 more lasting ailment. It was just the day when Mrs. Linacre 
 must not be missed from her post, and when it would be 
 wrong to give up the earnings which she might expect before 
 
 42 
 
ONE WAY Of MAKING WAR. 43 
 
 sundown. So she desired her children not to leave the pre- 
 mises — not even to go out of their father's sight and hearing, 
 and left them, secure, at least, that they would obey her 
 wishes. 
 
 They were quite willing to do so. Mildred looked behind 
 her, every few minutes, while she worked in the garden, to 
 see whether Roger was not there, and at every rustle that the 
 birds made among the trees on the Red Hill, the eminence 
 behind the house, she fancied that some one was hidden 
 there. Oliver let his tools and his alabaster lie hidden, much 
 as he longed to be at work with them. Mildred had lost her 
 greatest treasure, the white hen. He must take care of his 
 greatest treasure. Twice in the course of the morning he 
 went in, having thought of a safer place, and twice more he 
 put them back among the straw as safest there, after all. He 
 let them alone at last, on Mildred saying that she was afraid 
 Roger might somehow discover why he went in and out so 
 often. 
 
 They ran to the mill three or four times to tell their father 
 that the brown tent was still under the bank in the carr, and 
 that they could see nobody; though the wild-ducks and geese 
 made such a fluttering noise, now and then, that it seemed 
 as if some one was lurking about the ponds. Often in the 
 course of the morning, too, did Mr. Linacre look out of the 
 mill window, or nod to them from the top of the steps, that 
 they might see that he did not forget them. Meantime, the 
 white smoke curled up from the kitchen chimney, as Ailwin 
 cooked the dinner; and little George's voice and hers were 
 
44 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 often heard from within, as if they were having some fun 
 together. 
 
 The children were very hot, and began to say that they 
 were hungry, and thought dinner-time was near, when they 
 suddenly felt a strong rush of wind from the west. Oliver 
 lost his cap, and was running after it, when both heard a loud 
 shout from their father and looked up. They had never 
 heard him shout so loud as he now did, bidding them run up 
 the Red Hill that moment. He waved his arm and his cap 
 in that direction, as if he was mad. Mildred scampered up 
 the hill. She did not know why, nor what was the meaning 
 of the rolling, roaring thunder which seemed to convulse the 
 air: but her head was full of Roger; and she thought it was 
 some mischief of his. One part of the Red Hill was very 
 steep, and the ground soft. Her feet slipped on the moss first ; 
 and when she had got above the moss the red earth crumbled; 
 and she went back at every step, till she caught hold of some 
 brambles, and then of the trunk of a tree; so that, trembling 
 and panting, she reached at last the top of the eminence. 
 
 When she looked round, she saw a rushing, roaring river 
 where the garden had been just before. Rough waters were 
 dashing up against the hill on which she stood, against the 
 house, and against the mill. She saw the flood spreading, as 
 rapidly as the light at sunrise, over the whole expanse of the 
 Levels. She saw another flood bursting in from the Humber, 
 on the north-east, and meeting that which had just swept 
 by; she saw the two floods swallowing up field after field, 
 meadow after meadow, splashing up against every house, and 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 
 
 45 
 
 THE OLD HOME FLOODED. 
 
 surrounding all, so that the roofs, and the stacks beside 
 them, looked like so many little islands. She saw these 
 things in a moment, but did not heed them till afterwards, 
 for where was Oliver? 
 
 Oliver was safe, though it was rather a wonder that he was 
 
46 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. ' 
 
 so, considering his care for his cap. Oliver was an orderly 
 boy, accustomed to take great care of his things; and it did 
 not occur to him to let his cap go, when he had to run for 
 his life. He had to part with it, however. He was flying 
 after it, when another shout from his father made him look 
 round ; and then he saw the wall of water, as he called it, 
 rolling on directly upon the house. He gave a prodigious 
 spring across the garden ditch, and up the hill-side, and but 
 just escaped ; for the wind which immediately preceded the 
 flood blew him down ; and it was clinging to the trunk of a 
 tree that saved him, as his sister had been saved just before. 
 As it was, his feet were wet. Oliver panted and trembled, 
 like his sister; but he wass afe. 
 
 Every one was safe. Ailwin appeared at an upper window 
 exhibiting little George. Mr. Linacre stood with folded arms 
 in the doorway of his mill, and his wife was (he was thankful 
 to remember) on the side of a high hill far away. The 
 children and their father knew while the flood was roaring 
 between them what all were thinking of, and at the same 
 moment the miller and his boy waved, the one his hat and 
 the other a green bough, high and joyously over their heads. 
 Little George saw this from the window, and clapped his 
 hands and jumped as Ailwin held him on the window sill. 
 
 " Look at Geordie," cried Mildred. " Do look at him. 
 Don't you think you hear him now?" 
 
 This happy mood could not last very long, however, as 
 the waters, instead of going down, were evidently rising every 
 moment. From the first the flood had been too deep and 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 4.7 
 
 rapid to allow of the miller crossing from his mill to his 
 house. He was a poor swimmer, and no swimmer, he thought, 
 could have avoided being carried away into the wide marsh, 
 where there was no help. Then, instead of the stream slacken- 
 ing, it rushed more furiously as it rose — rose first over the 
 wall of the yard and up to the fourth, fifth, sixth step of the 
 mill ladder, and then almost into the branches of the apple- 
 trees in the garden. 
 
 " I hope you will not mind being hungry, Mildred," said 
 her brother, after a time of silence. " We are not likely to 
 have any dinner to-day, I think." 
 
 " I don't mind that very much," said Mildred. " But how 
 do you think we are to get away with this great river between 
 us and home ?" 
 
 " We shall see what father does," said Oliver. " He is 
 farther off still on the other side." 
 
 " But what is all this water? When will it go away?" 
 
 " I am afraid the embankments have burst. And yet the 
 weather has been fine enough lately. Perhaps the sluices 
 are broken up." 
 
 Seeing that Mildred did not understand the more for what 
 he said, he explained, 
 
 " You know all these Levels were watery grounds once, 
 more wet than the carr yonder. Well, great clay banks were 
 made to keep out the Humber waters over there to the north- 
 east, and on the west and north-west yonder to keep two or 
 three rivers there from overflowing the land. Then several 
 canals and ditcher were cut to drain the land, and there are 
 
48 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 great gates put up here and there to let the waters in and out 
 as they are wanted. I am afraid those gates are gone or the 
 clay banks broken down, so that the sea and the rivers are 
 pouring in all the water they have." 
 
 " But when will it be over ? Will it ever run off again ? 
 Shall we ever get home again ?" 
 
 " I do not know anything about it. We must wait, and 
 watch what father will do. See! what is this coming?" 
 
 " A dead horse ! " exclaimed Mildred. " Drowned, I sup- 
 pose. Don't you think so, Oliver ? " 
 
 " Drowned, of course. Do you know, Mildred," he con" 
 tinued, after a silence, during which he was looking towards 
 the sheds in the yard, while his sister's eyes were following 
 the body of the horse as it was swept along, now whirled 
 round in an eddy, and now going clear over the hedge into 
 the carr — " do you know, Mildred," said Oliver, " I think 
 father will be completely ruined by this flood." 
 
 " Do you ? " said Mildred, who did not quite know what 
 it was to be ruined. " How ? Why ? " 
 
 " Why, it was bad enough that so much gypsum was spoiled 
 yesterday. I am afraid now the whole quarry will be 
 spoiled. And then I doubt whether the harvest will not 
 be ruined all through the Levels; and I am pretty sure 
 nothing will be growing in the garden when the waters 
 are gone. That was not our horse that went by; but our 
 horse may be drowned, and the cow, and the sow, and 
 everything." 
 
 " Not the fowls," said Mildred. " Look at them, all in a 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 49 
 
 row on the top of the cowshed. They will not be drowned, 
 at any rate." 
 
 " But then they may be starved. Oh, dear," he continued, 
 with a start of recollection, " I wonder whether Ailwin has 
 thought of moving the meal and the grain upstairs. It will 
 be all rotted and spoiled if the water runs through it." 
 
 He shouted, and made signs to Ailwin with all his might, 
 but in vain. She could not hear a word he said, or make 
 anything of his signs. He was vexed, and said Ailwin was 
 always stupid. 
 
 "So she is," replied Mildred; "but it does not signify 
 now. Look how the water is pouring out of the parlour 
 window ! The meal and grain must have been wet through 
 long ago. Is not that a pretty waterfall ? A waterfall from 
 our parlour window, down upon the tulip-bed ! How very 
 odd!" 
 
 " If one could think how to feed these poor animals," said 
 Oliver, " and the fowls ! If there was anything here that one 
 could get for them ! One might cut a little grass for the cow, 
 but there is nothing else." 
 
 " Only the leaves of the trees, and a few blackberries when 
 they are ripe," said Mildred, looking round her," and flowers 
 — wild flowers, and a few that mother planted." 
 
 " The bees ! " cried Oliver. " Let us save them. They 
 can feed themselves. We will save the bees." 
 
 "Why, you don't -think they are drowned?" said Mildred. 
 
 The bees were not drowned ; but they were in more danger 
 of it than Mildred supposed. Their little shed was placed 
 
 4 
 
50 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 on the side of the Red-hill, so as to overlook the flowery 
 garden. The waters stood among the posts of this shed, and 
 the hives themselves shook with every wave that rolled 
 along. 
 
 " You cannot do it, Oliver,'' cried Mildred, as her brother 
 crept down the slope to the back of the shed. " You can 
 never get round, Oliver. You will slip in, Oliver." 
 
 Oliver looked round and nodded, as there was no use in 
 sneaking in such a noise. He presently showed that he did 
 not mean to go round to the front of the shed. That would 
 never have done, for the flood had washed away the soil 
 there, and left nothing to stand upon. He broke away the 
 boards at the back of the bee-shed, which were old and 
 loosely fastened. He was glad he had come, for the bees 
 were bustling about in great confusion and distress, evidently 
 aware that something great was the matter. Oliver seized 
 one of the hives with the board it stood on, and carried it, 
 as steadily as he could, to a sunny part of the hill, where he 
 put it down on the grass. He then went for another, asking 
 Mildred to come part of the way down to receive the second 
 hive, and put it by the first, as he saw there was not a moment 
 to lose. She did so ; but she trembled so much, that it was 
 probable she would have let the hive fall, if it had ever been 
 in her hands. It never was, however. The soil was now 
 melting away in the water, where Oliver had stood firmly but 
 a few minutes before. He had to take great care, and to 
 change his footing every instant ; and it was not without- 
 slipping and sliding, and wet feet, that he brought away the 
 
ONE WA Y OF MAKING WAR. 
 
 second hive. Mildred saw how hot he was, as he sat resting 
 with the hive, before climbing the bank, and begged that he 
 would not try any more. 
 
 RESCUING THE BEES. 
 
 "These poor bees !" exclaimed Oliver, beginning to move 
 again, on the thought of the bees being drowned. But he 
 had done all he could. The water boiled up between the 
 shed and the bank, lifted the whole structure, and swept it 
 away. Oliver hastened to put down the second hive beside 
 the first, and when he returned, saw that the posts had 
 
 4—2 
 
52 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 sunk, the boards were floating away, and the remaining hive 
 itself sailing down the stream. 
 
 "How it rocks!" cried Mildred. "I wish it would turn 
 quite over, so that the poor things might get out and fly 
 away." 
 
 " They never will," said Oliver. " I wish I had thought 
 of the bees a little sooner. It is very odd that you did not, 
 Mildred." 
 
 " I don't know how to think of anything," said Mildred, 
 dolefully; "it is all so odd, and so frightful !" 
 
 "Well, don't cry, if you can help it, dear," said her 
 brother. "We shall see what father will do. He won't 
 cry — I am sure of that." 
 
 Mildred laughed, for she never had seen her father cry. 
 
 " He was not far off crying yesterday, though," said 
 Oliver, "when he saw your poor hen lying dead. He looked 
 
 but, O Mildred ! what can have become of the Red- 
 
 furns? We have been thinking all this while about the 
 bees ; and we never once remembered the Redfurns. Why, 
 their tent was scarcely bigger than our hives; and I am sure 
 it could not stand a minute against the flood." 
 
 While he spoke, Oliver was running to the part of the 
 hill which commanded the widest view of the carr, and 
 Mildred was following at his heels, — a good deal startled 
 by the hares which leaped across her path. There seemed 
 to be more hares now on the hill than she had seen in all 
 her life before. She could not ask about the hares, however, 
 when she saw the brown tent, or a piece of it, flapping about 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 53 
 
 in the water, a great way off, and sweeping along with the 
 current. 
 
 "Hark! what was that? Did you hear?" said Oliver, 
 turning very pale. 
 
 " I thought I heard a child crying a great way off," said 
 Mildred, trembling. 
 
 " It was not a child, dear. It was a shriek — a woman's 
 shriek, I am afraid. I am afraid it is Nan Redfurn, some- 
 where in the carr. Oh, dear! if they should all be drowned, 
 and nobody there to help them !" 
 
 "No.no! I don't believe it," said Mildred. "They have 
 got up somewhere — climbed up something— that bank or 
 something." 
 
 They heard nothing more, amidst the dash of the flood, 
 and they fancied they could see some figures moving on the 
 ridge of the bank, far out over the carr. When they were 
 tired of straining their eyes, they looked about them, and 
 saw in a smoother piece of water near their hill, a dog swim- 
 ming, and seeming to labour very much. 
 
 "It has got something fastened to it," cried Mildred— 
 " something tied round its neck." 
 
 " It is somebody swimming," replied Oliver. " They will 
 get safe here now. Cannot we help them ? I wish I had 
 a rope. A long switch may do. I will get a long switch." 
 
 " Yes, cut a long switch," cried Mildred. And she pulled 
 and tugged at a long, tough, thorny bramble, not minding 
 its pricking her fingers and tearing her frock. She could 
 not help starting at the immense number of large birds that 
 
54 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 flew out, and rabbits that ran away between her feet, while 
 she was about it ; but she never left hold, and dragged the 
 long bramble down to the part of the hill that the dog 
 seemed to be trying to reach. Oliver was already there, 
 holding a slip of ash, such as he had sometimes cut for a 
 fishing-rod. 
 
 " It is Roger, I do believe ; but I see nothing of the 
 others," said he. " Look at his head, as it bobs up and 
 down. Is it not Roger?" 
 
 "Oh, dear! I hope not!" cried Mildred, in a tone of 
 despair. " What shall we do if he comes ? " 
 
 "We must see that afterwards; we must save him first 
 Now for it!" 
 
 As Oliver spoke, the dog ducked, and came up again 
 without Roger, swimming lightly to the bank, and leaping 
 ashore with a bark. Roger was there, however — very near, 
 but, they supposed, exhausted, for he seemed to fall back 
 and sink, on catching hold of Oliver's switch, and by the 
 jerk twitched it out of the boy's hand. 
 
 "Try again!" shouted Oliver, as he laid Mildred's 
 bramble along the water. "Don't let go, Mildred." 
 
 Mildred let the thorns run deep into her fingers without 
 leaving her hold. Roger grasped the other end ; and they 
 pulled, without jerking, and with all their strength, till he 
 reached the bank, and they could help him out with their 
 hands. 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad you are safe, Roger !" said Oliver. 
 
 "You might have found something better than that 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 55 
 
 thorny switch to throw me," said Roger. " My hands are 
 all blood with the spikes." 
 
 " Look at hers ! " cried Oliver, intending to show the 
 state that his sister's hands were in for Roger's sake; but 
 Mildred pulled away her hands, and hid them behind her 
 as she retreated, saying, 
 
 " No, no ! Never mind that now." 
 
 Oliver saw how drenched the poor boy looked, and for- 
 gave whatever he might say. He asked Mildred to go back 
 to the place where they had been standing, opposite the 
 house; and he would come to her there presently. He 
 then begged Roger to slipV)ff his coat and trousers, that 
 they might wring the wet out of them. He thought they 
 would soon dry in the sun. But Roger pushed him away 
 with his shoulder, and said he knew what he wanted, — he 
 wanted to see what he had got about him. He would 
 knock anybody down who touched his pockets. It was 
 plain that Roger did not choose to be helped in any way . 
 so Oliver soon ran off, and joined Mildred, as he had 
 promised. 
 
 " I do not like to leave him, all wet, and so tired that I 
 could knock him over with my little finger," exclaimed 
 Oliver. " But he won't trust me about anything." 
 
 " There is father again ! Tell him," cried Mildred. 
 
 Both children shouted that Roger was here, and pointed 
 behind them ; but it was plain that their father could not 
 make out a word they said, though they had never called 
 out so loud in their lives. Roger heard them, however, as 
 
56 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 [hey judged by seeing him skulking among the trees behind, 
 watching what use they were making of his name. 
 
 The children thought their father was growing very anxious. 
 He still waved his hat to them, now and then, when he 
 looked their way; but they saw him gazing abroad, as if 
 surprised that the rush of waters did not abate. They ob- 
 served him glance often round the sky, as if for signs of 
 wind ; and they longed to know whether he thought a wind 
 would do good or harm. They saw him bring out, for the 
 third time, a rope which he had seemed to think too short 
 to be of any use ; and this appeared to be the case now as 
 at first. Then he stooped down, as if to make a mark on 
 the side of the white doorpost (for the water had by this 
 time quite hidden the steps) ; and Oliver thought this was to 
 make out, for certain, whether the flood was regularly rising 
 or not. They could not imagine why he examined so closely 
 as they saw him do the door-lintel and the window-frame. 
 It did not occur to them, as it did to him, that the mill 
 might break down under the force of the current. 
 
 At last it was clear that he saw Roger; and from that 
 moment he scarcely took his eyes from his children. Oliver 
 put his arm round Mildred's neck, and said in her ear, 
 
 " I know what father is watching us for. He is afraid 
 that Stephen is here too, and no one to take care of us, — 
 not even Ailwin." 
 
 "Perhaps Stephen is here, — in the wood," cried Mildred, 
 in terror. " I wish this water would make haste, and run 
 away, and let us get home.'' 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 57 
 
 " It cannot run faster than it does. Look how the waves 
 dash along ! That is the worst of it : it shows what a quantity 
 there is, where this came from. But I don't believe Stephen 
 is here. I have a good mind to ask Roger, and make him 
 tell me." 
 
 " No, don't, Oliver ! Stephen may be drowned. Do not 
 put him in mind." 
 
 " Why, you see he does not care for anything. He is teasing 
 some live thing at this minute, — there, on the ground." 
 
 Oliver himself forgot everything but the live animals 
 before his eyes, when he saw how many there were under 
 the trees. The grass was swarming with mice, moles, and 
 small snakes, while rabbits cocked up their little white tails, 
 in all directions, and partridges flew out of every bush, and 
 hares started from every hollow that the boy looked into. 
 
 " All soaked out of their holes ; don't know what to do 
 with themselves : fine sport for those who have a mind to it," 
 said Roger, as he lay on the ground, pulling back a little 
 mouse by its long tail as often as it tried to run away. 
 
 "You have no mind for sport to-day, I suppose, Roger. 
 I should not think anybody has." 
 
 "I don't know; I'm rarely hungry," said the boy. 
 
 " So were we ; but we forgot it again. Father is in the 
 mill there . . . ." 
 
 " You need not tell me that. Don't I see him ? " 
 
 "But we think he is looking out for Stephen." 
 
 " He won't find him," said Roger, in a very low voice — 
 so low that Oliver was not sure what he said. 
 
58 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "He is not here on the hill, then, Roger?" 
 
 " On the hill, no ! I don't know where he is, nor the 
 woman either. I suppose they are drowned, as I was, 
 nearly. If they did not swim as I did, they must be 
 drowned ; and they could hardly do that, as I had the dog." 
 
 The children looked at each other and their looks told 
 that they thought Roger was shocked and sorry, though he 
 tried not to appear so. 
 
 " There might have been a boat, perhaps, out on the carr. 
 Don't you think the country people in the hills would get 
 out boats when they saw the flood spreading ? " 
 
 " Boats, no ! The hill people have not above three boats 
 among them all. There are about three near the ponds, and 
 they are like nut-shells. How should any boat live in such 
 a flood as that ? Why, that flood would sweep a ship out to 
 sea in a minute. You need not think about boats, I can 
 tell you." 
 
 "But won't anybody send a boat for us?" inquired Mil- 
 dred, who had drawn near to listen. " If they don't send a 
 boat, and the flood goes on, what are we to do ? We can't 
 live here with nothing to eat, and no beds, and no shelter 
 if it should rain." 
 
 " Are you now beginning to cry about that ? Are you 
 now beginning to find that out, after all this time ? " said 
 Roger, contemptuously. 
 
 " I thought we should get away," sobbed the little girl. 
 " I thought a boat or something would come." 
 
 " A pretty silly thing you must be," exclaimed Roger. 
 
ONE WAY OF MAKING WAR. 59 
 
 " If she is silly, I am silly too," declared Oliver. " I am 
 not sure that it is silly to look for a boat. There are plenty 
 out on the coast there." 
 
 " They are all dashed to pieces long ago," decided Roger. 
 " And they that let in the flood will take good care you 
 don't get out of it, you and your outlanders. It is all along 
 of you that I am in this scrape. But it was shameful of 
 them not to give us notice ; it was too bad to catch us in 
 the same trap with you. If uncle is drowned, and I ever 
 get out alive, I will be revenged on them." 
 
 Mildred stopped crying, as well as she could, to listen ; 
 but she felt like Oliver when he said, 
 
 "1 don't know a word of what you mean." 
 
 " I daresay not. You foreigners never know anything like 
 other people." 
 
 " But won't you tell us ? Who made this flood? " 
 
 " To be sure you weren't meant to know this. It would 
 not have done to show you the way out of the trap. Why, 
 the Parliament Committee at Lincoln ordered the snow- 
 sewer sluice to be pulled up to-day, to drown the King's lands 
 and get rid of his tenants. It will be as good as a battle 
 gained to them." 
 
 The children were aghast at the wickedness of this deed. 
 They would not believe it. It would have been tyrannical 
 and cruel to have obliged the settlers, who were not interested 
 in a quarrel between the King of England and his people, 
 to enlist, and be shot down in war. They would have 
 complained of this as tyrannical and cruel. But when they 
 
6o THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 were living in peace and quiet on their farms, paying their 
 rents, and inclined to show goodwill to everybody, to pull up 
 the flood-gates, and let in the sea and the rivers to drown 
 them because they lived in the King's lands, was a cruelty too 
 dreadful to be believed. Oliver and Mildred did not believe 
 it. They were sure their father would not believe it, and that 
 their mother, if ever she should return to her home and family, 
 would bring a very different account — that the whole misfor- 
 tune would turn out to be accidental. So they felt assured ; 
 but the fact was as Roger had said. The snow-sewer sluice 
 had been pulled up by the orders of the Committee of the 
 Parliament, then sitting at Lincoln, and it was done to destroy 
 the King's new lands, and deprive him of the support of his 
 tenants. The jealous country people round hoped also that 
 it would prevent foreigners from coming to live in England, 
 however much they might want such a refuge. 
 
 Some of the sufferers knew how their misfortune happened. 
 Others might be thankful that they did not ; for the thought 
 of the malice of their enemies must have been more bitter 
 than the fear of ruin and death. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A. HUNGRY DAY. 
 
 " We shall see what father does," was still the consolation 
 with which Oliver kept down his sister's fears. He had such 
 confidence in his father's knowing what was best to be done 
 on all occasions, that he felt they had only to watch him, and 
 imitate whatever he might attempt They remained quiet on 
 the island now, hungry and tired as they were, because he 
 remained in the mill, and seemed to expect the water to 
 subside. The most fearful thought was what they were to do 
 after dark, if they should not get home before that. They 
 supposed, at last, that their father was thinking of this too, 
 for he began to move about, when the sun was near setting, 
 more than he had done all the afternoon. 
 
 They saw him go carefully down into the stream, and pro- 
 ceed cautiously for some way, till the water was up to his 
 chia Then he was buffeted about so terribly that Mildred 
 could not bear to look. Both Oliver and Roger were sure, 
 by what he ventured, and by the way he pulled himself back 
 
 61 
 
62 THE SETTLERS A T HOME. 
 
 at last to the steps that he had tied himself by the rope they 
 had seen him measure. It was certainly too short for any 
 good purpose, for he had to go back, having only wetted 
 himself to the skin. They saw this by the yellow light from 
 the west which shone upon the water. In a few minutes they 
 could distinguish him no longer, though the mill stood up 
 black against the sky, and in the midst of the gleaming flood. 
 
 " Father will be wet, and so cold all night! " said Mildred, 
 crying. 
 
 " If I could only swim," exclaimed Oliver, " I would get 
 over to him somehow, and carry a rope from the house. I 
 am sure there must be a rope long enough somewhere about 
 the yard. If I could only swim I would get to him." 
 
 " That you wouldn't," said Roger. "Your father can swim, 
 and why does not he ? Because nobody could swim across 
 that stream. It is a torrent. It would carry any stout man 
 out over the carr, and you would be no better than a twig in 
 the middle of it." 
 
 "I am afraid now this torrent will not slacken,'' said Oliver, 
 thoughtfully. "I am afraid there is some hollow near which 
 will keep up the current." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" 
 
 "They say in Holland, where they have floods sometimes, 
 that when water flows into a hollow it gets out in a current, 
 and keeps it up for some way. Oh, the quarry ! " he cried, 
 with sudden recollection. "Mildred, let us go and look what 
 is doing on that side before it is dark." 
 
 They ran round the hill, and there they saw indeed that 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 
 
 63 
 
 the flood was tumbling in the quarry like water boiling in a 
 pot When it rushed out it carried white earth with it, which 
 made a long streak in the flood, and explained how it was 
 that the stream between the house and the mill was whiter 
 and more muddy than that between their hill and the house. 
 
 A PERILOUS VENTURE. 
 
 At once it occurred to Roger that the stream between the 
 hill and the house was probably less rapid than the other, 
 and he said so. Oliver ran back, and so did Mildred, pleased 
 at the bare idea of getting to the house. 
 
 Once more arrived opposite the house, they saw a strange 
 sight. The mill no longer stood in its right place. It had 
 moved a good way down towards the earn Not only that, 
 but it was still moving. It was sailing away like a ship. After 
 the first exclamation, even Roger stood as still as death to 
 
64 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 watch it. He neither moved nor spoke till the mill was out 
 of sight in the dusk. When Mildred burst into a loud cry, 
 and Oliver threw himself down, hiding his face on the ground, 
 Roger spoke again. 
 
 " Be quiet — you must," he said, decidedly, to the little girl. 
 "We must bestir ourselves now, instead of stopping to see 
 what other folks will do." 
 
 " Oh, father ! father will be drowned ! " cried they. 
 
 "You don't know that. If he drifts out to the Humber, 
 which is likely, by the way he is going, some ship may pick 
 him up, or he may light upon some high ground. We can't 
 settle that now, however; and the clear thing is that he 
 wouldn't wish us to starve, whether he drowns or not. Come, 
 get up, lad," said he, stirring Oliver with his foot. 
 
 " Don't lie there, Oliver ; do get up," begged Mildred. 
 
 Oliver rose, and did all that Roger bade him. 
 
 "You say there is a long rope somewhere about the house," 
 said Roger. " Where is it ?" 
 
 " There is one in the cow-shed, I know." 
 
 "And if I cannot get there, is there one in the house?" 
 
 " In the lumber-room," said Mildred. " The spare bed is 
 tied round and round with a long rope — I don't know how 
 long." 
 
 " I wish we had set about it an hour ago," muttered Roger, 
 " instead of waiting for dark. A pretty set of fools we have 
 been to lose the daylight. I say, lad, can you think of any 
 way of making a fire ? Here are sticks enough, if one could 
 set them alight." 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 65 
 
 "To cook a supper?" asked Mildred. 
 
 "No; I mean to sup withindoors; only we must do some 
 work first." 
 
 Oliver had a steel knife ; but it was too dark to look for 
 a flint, if any other plan than a fire would do. 
 
 "Well, don't plague any more about a fire," said Roger, 
 "but listen to me. Can you climb a tree? I'll be bound 
 you can't ; and now you '11 die if you can't.' 7 
 
 " I can," said Oliver ; " but what is Mildred to do ? " 
 
 " We '11 see that afterwards. Which of these trees stands 
 nearest to the nearest of yon upper windows ? " 
 
 Oliver and Mildred pointed out a young ash, which now 
 quite bent over the water. 
 
 "That is not strong enough," said Roger, shaking the 
 tree, and finding it loosened at the roots. " Show me a 
 stouter one." 
 
 A well-grown beech was the next nearest Roger pulled 
 Oliver by the arm, and made him stand directly under the 
 tree, with his sister beside him. He desired them not to 
 move from where they were, and to give a loud halloo together, 
 or a shriek (or anything that might be heard farthest) about 
 once in a minute for an hour to come, unless they should 
 hear a rope fall into the tree or anywhere near them. They 
 were to watch for this rope, and use all their endeavours to 
 catch it. There would be a weight at the end, which would 
 make it easier to catch. Oliver must tie this rope to the 
 trunk of the tree, stretching it tight with all his strength, and 
 then tying it so securely that no weight would unfasten it. 
 
 5 
 
66 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " Mind you that," said Roger. " If you don't, you will 
 be drowned, that 's all. Do as I tell you, and you '11 see 
 what you will see." 
 
 Roger then whistled for his dog, snatched Oliver's black 
 ribbon from about his neck, and fastened it round the dog's 
 neck to hold by. He then showed the dog the house, and 
 forced him into the water, himself following, till the children 
 could no longer see what became of them. 
 
 "What do you think he means?" asked poor Mildred, 
 shivering. 
 
 " I don't know exactly. He cannot mean that we are to 
 climb over by a rope. I do not think I could do that ; and 
 I am sure you could not." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! Let us stay here. Stay with me under 
 the trees here, Oliver." 
 
 " Why, it would be much more comfortable to be at 
 home by the fire. You are shivering now already, as if it 
 was winter; and the night will be very long with nothing 
 to eat." 
 
 "But Roger is gone ; and I don't like to be where he is — 
 he is such a rude boy. How he snatched your ribbon, and 
 pulled you about ! And he calls you ' lad,' when he might 
 just as well say ' Oliver.' " 
 
 "We must not mind such things now, dear. And we 
 must get home, if he can show us how. Think how glad 
 Ailwin and George will be ; and I am sure father would wish 
 it, and mother too. You must not cry now, Mildred ; in- 
 deed you must not. People must do what they can at such 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 67 
 
 a time as this Come, help me to shout. Shriek as loud 
 and as long as ever you can." 
 
 " I wish I might say my prayers," said Mildred, presently. 
 
 " Do, dear. Kneel down here ; nobody sees us. Let us 
 ask God to save, father, and us too, and George and Ailwin, 
 if it pleases Him, and Roger." 
 
 They kneeled down, and Oliver said aloud to God what 
 was in his heart. It was a great comfort to them both ; for 
 they knew that while no human eye saw them in the star- 
 light, under the tree, God heard their words and understood 
 their hearts. -^ 
 
 " Now again," said Oliver, as they stood up. 
 
 They raised a cry about once a minute, as nearly as they 
 could guess ; and they had given as many as thirty shouts, 
 and began to find it very hard work, before anything hap- 
 pened to show them that it was of any use. Then something 
 struck the tree over their heads, and pattered down among 
 the leaves, touching Oliver's head at last. He felt about, 
 and caught the end of a rope without having to climb the 
 tree to search for it. They set up a shout of a different kind 
 now, for they really were very glad. This shout was an- 
 swered by a gentle tug at the rope ; but Oliver held fast, 
 determined not to let anything pull the precious line out of 
 his hand. 
 
 " What have we here?" said he, as he felt a parcel tied to 
 the rope, a little way from the end. He gave it to Mildred 
 to untie and open, which she did with some trouble, wishing 
 the evening was not so dark. 
 
 5— 2 
 
68 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 It was a tinder-box. 
 
 "There now," said Oliver, "we shall soon know what we 
 are about. Do you know where the tree was cut down the 
 other day ? " 
 
 "Close by? Yes." 
 
 "Well, bring a lapful of chips — quick; and then any dry 
 sticks you can find. We can get on twice as fast with a 
 light, and then they will see from the house how we manage." 
 
 In a few minutes there was a fire blazing near the tree. 
 The rope must have come straight over from the house, 
 without dipping once into the water ; for, not only were the 
 flint and steel safe, but the tinder within, and the cloth that 
 the box was done up in, were quite dry. 
 
 "Roger is a clever fellow, that is certain," said Oliver, 
 "Now for fastening the rope. Do you take care that the 
 fire keeps up. Don't spare for chips. Keep a good fire 
 till I have done." 
 
 Oliver gave all his strength to pulling the rope tight, and 
 winding it round the trunk of the beech, just above a large 
 knob in the stem. It seemed to him that the rope stretched 
 pretty evenly, as far as he could see, not slanting either 
 up or down, so that the sill of the upper window must be 
 about upon a level with the great knob in the beech-trunk. 
 Oliver tied knot upon knot, till no more rope was left to 
 knot. It still hung too slack, if it was meant for a bridge. 
 He did not think he could ever cross the water on a rope 
 that would keep him dangling at every move ; but he had 
 pulled it tight with all his force, and he could do no more. 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 
 
 When he had tied the last knot, he and Mildred stood in 
 front of the fire, and raised one more great shout, waving 
 their arms, sure now of being seen as well as heard. 
 
 "Look, look ! " cried Oliver," it is moving ; the rope is not 
 so slack! They are tightening it. How much tighter it is 
 
 A LITTLE COMFORT AT LAST. 
 
 than I could pull it ! That must be Ailwin's strong arm, 
 together with Roger's." 
 
 " But still I never can creep across that way," declared 
 Mildred. "I wish you would not try, Oliver. Do stay 
 with me." 
 
 " I will not leave you, dear ; but we do not know what 
 they mean us to do yet. There! now the rope is shaking! 
 We shall see something. Do you see anything coming? 
 
70 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Don't look at the flashing water. Fix your eye on the rope, 
 with the light upon it. What do you see?" 
 
 " I see something like a basket — like one of our clothes- 
 baskets — coming along the line." 
 
 It was one of Mrs. Linacre's clothes-baskets which was 
 slung upon the rope, and Roger was in it. He did not stay 
 a minute. He threw to Oliver a line which was fastened to 
 the end of the basket, with which he might pull it over, from 
 the window to the tree, when emptied of Roger. He was 
 then to put Mildred into the basket, carefully keeping hold 
 of the line, in order to pull it back for himself when his sister 
 should be safely landed. Ailwin held a line fastened to the 
 other end of the basket, with which to pull it the other way. 
 
 Oliver was overjoyed. He said he had never seen any- 
 thing so clever; and he asked Mildred whether she could 
 possibly be afraid of riding over in this safe little carriage. 
 He told her how to help her passage by pulling herself along 
 the bridge rope, as he called it, instead of hindering her pro- 
 gress by clinging to the rope as she sat in the basket. Taking 
 care not to let go the line for a moment, he again examined 
 the knots of the longer rope, and found they were all fast. 
 In a few minutes he began hauling in his line, and the empty 
 basket came over very easily. 
 
 "How shall I get in?" asked Mildred, trembling. 
 
 " Here," said Oliver, stooping his back to her. " Climb 
 upon my back. Now hold by the tree, and stand upon my 
 shoulders. Don't be afraid. You are light enough. Now, 
 can't you step in ?" 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 71 
 
 Feeling how much depended upon this, the little girl ma- 
 naged it. She tumbled into the basket, took a lesson from 
 Oliver how to help her own passage, and earnestly begged 
 him to take care of his line, that nothing might prevent his 
 following her immediately. Then came a great tug, and she 
 felt herself drawn back into the darkness. She did not like 
 it at all. The water roared louder than ever as she hung over 
 it, and the light which was cast upon it from the fire showed 
 how rapidly it was shooting beneath. Then she saw Oliver 
 go and throw some more chips and twigs on the fire, and she 
 knew by that that he could see her no longer. She worked 
 as hard as she could, putting her hands one behind the other 
 along the rope ; but her hands were weak, and her head was 
 very dizzy. She had had nothing to eat since breakfast, and 
 was quite tired out. 
 
 While still keeping her eyes upon Oliver, she felt a jerk. 
 The basket knocked against something, and it made her quite 
 sick. She immediately heard Ailwin's voice saying, 
 
 " T is one of them, that 's certain. Well ! if I didn't think 
 it was some vile conjuring trick up to this very moment." 
 
 The poor dizzy child felt a strong arm passed round her 
 waist, and found herself carried near a fire in a room. 
 
 She faltered out, " Ailwin, get something for Oliver to eat ; 
 he will be here presently." 
 
 " That I will ; and for you first. You shall both have a 
 drop of my cherry -brandy, too." 
 
 Mildred said she had rather have a draught of milk ; but 
 Ailwin said there was no milk. She had not been able to 
 
72 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 reach the cow to milk her. What had poor little George 
 done, then ? He had had some that had been left from the 
 morning. Ailwin added that she was very sorry. She could 
 not tell viow she came to be so forgetful ; but she had never 
 thought of not being able to milk the cow in the afternoon, 
 and had drunk up all that George left of the milk, her regular 
 dinner having been drowned in the kitchen. Neither had 
 she remembered to bring anything eatable upstairs with her, 
 when the flood drove her from the lower rooms. The flour 
 and grain were now all under water. The vegetables were 
 no doubt swimming about in the cellar ; and the meat would 
 have been where the flour was at this moment, if Roger, who 
 said he had no mind to be starved, had not somehow fished 
 up a joint of mutton. This was now stewing over the fire ; 
 but it was little likely to be good, for, besides there being no 
 vegetables, the salt was all melted, and the water was noue 
 of the best. Indeed, the water was so bad that it ro>jld not 
 be drunk alone ; and again good Ailwin pressed a drop of 
 her cherry-brandy. Mildred, however, preferred a cup of 
 the broth, which, poor as it was, was all the better for the 
 loaf— the only loaf of bread — being boiled in it. 
 
 Just when Mildred thought she could stand at the window 
 and watch for Oliver, Oliver came in at the window. He was 
 not too tired to have his wits about him, as Ailwin said; 
 wits, she added, that were worth more than hers. He had 
 brought over some dry wood with him, as much as the basket 
 would hold, thinking that the peat-stack was probably all 
 afloat, and the wood heap wetted through. All were pleased 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 73 
 
 at the prospect of keeping up a fire during this strange night. 
 All agreed that the bridge rope must be left as it was while 
 the flood lasted. There were wild animals and birds enough 
 on the Red-hill to last for food for a long while, and there 
 alone could they get fuel. 
 
 "You can't catch game without my dog," cried Roger, 
 surlily, to Ailwin ; "and my dog shan't put his nose to the 
 ground if you don't feed him well ; and he shall be where I 
 am, mind you that." 
 
 As he spoke, he opened the door to admit the dog, which 
 Ailwin had put out upon the stairs, for the sake of her pet 
 hen and chicks, which were all in the room. The hen flut- 
 tered up to a beam below the ceiling on the appearance of the 
 dog, and the chicks cluttered about, till Ailwin and Mildred 
 caught them and kept them in their laps. They glanced 
 timidlyat Roger, remembering the fate of the white hen the 
 day before. Roger did not heed them. He had taken out 
 his knife, forked up the mutton out of the kettle, and cut off 
 the best half for himself and his dog. 
 
 Probably Oliver was thinking that Roger deserved the best 
 they could give him for his services, for he said, " I am sure, 
 Roger, Mildred and I shall never forget — nor father and 
 mother either, if ever they know it — what you have done for 
 us to-night. We might have died on the Red-hill but for you." 
 
 " Stuff! " muttered Roger, as he sat swinging his legs, with 
 his open knife in his hand, and his mouth crammed, " Stuff ! 
 As if I cared whether you and she sink or swim ! I like 
 sport, that's all.'' 
 
74 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Nobody spoke. Ailwin helped the children to the poor 
 broth and the remains of the meat, shaking her head when 
 they begged her to take some. She whispered a good deal 
 to Oliver about cherry-brandy ; but he replied aloud that it 
 looked and smelt very good, but that the only time he had 
 tasted it, it made him rather giddy, and he did not wish to 
 be giddy to-night, there was so much to think about, and he 
 was not at all sure that the flood had got to its height. He 
 said no more, though his mind was full of his father. Neither 
 he nor Mildred could mention their father to Ailwin to-night, 
 even if Roger had been out of the way. 
 
 Roger probably thought what Oliver did say very silly, for 
 he sat laughing as he heard it, and for some time after. Half 
 an hour later, when Ailwin passed near him while she was 
 laying down a bed for Oliver, so that they might be all to- 
 gether during this night of alarm, she thought there was a 
 strong smell of brandy. She flew to her bottle, and found 
 it empty— not a drop left. Roger had drained it all. His 
 head soon drooped upon his breast, and he fell from his chair 
 in a drunken sleep. Mildred shrank back from him in horror, 
 but Ailwin and Oliver rolled him into a corner of the room, 
 where his dog lay down beside him. 
 
 Ailwin could not refrain from giving him a kick, while he 
 lay thus powerless, and sneering in his face because he could 
 not see her. 
 
 " Don't, Ailwin— don't ! " said Oliver. " Mildred and I 
 should not have been here now but for him." 
 
 " And I should not have been terrified out of my wits for 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 
 
 75 
 
 FINDING THE BOTTLE EMPTY. 
 
 these two hours past, nor have lost my cherry-brandy, but 
 for him. Mercy ! I shall never forget his popping up his face 
 at that window, and sending his dog in before him. I was 
 as sure as death that the flood was all of their making, and 
 
76 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 that they were come for me, after having carried off my 
 master, and, as I thought, you two." 
 
 " Why, Ailwin, what nonsense ! " cried Mildred from her 
 bed, trembling all over as she spoke. " How could a boy 
 make a flood ? " 
 
 " And you see what he has done, instead of carrying us 
 off," observed Oliver. 
 
 "Well, it is almost worth my cherry-brandy to see him 
 lie so — dead drunk — only it would be better still to see him 
 really dead. Well, that may be a wicked thing to say ; but 
 it is not so wicked as some things he has done ; and I am 
 so mortally afraid of him." 
 
 " I wish you would say your prayers, Ailwin, instead of 
 saying such things ; and then, perhaps, you would find 
 yourself not afraid of anybody." 
 
 " Well, that is almost as good as if the pastor had preached 
 it. I will just hang up the chicks in the hand-basket, for 
 fear of the dog ; and then we will say our prayers, and go to 
 sleep, please God. I am sure we all want it." 
 
 Oliver chose to examine first how high the water stood in 
 the lower rooms. He lighted a piece of wood, and found 
 that only two steps of the lower flight of stairs remained dry. 
 Ailwin protested so earnestly that the waters had not risen 
 for two or three hours, that he thought they might all lie 
 down to sleep. Ailwin and he were the only ones who could 
 keep watch. He did not think Ailwin's watching would be 
 worth much. He was so tired that he did not think he 
 could keep awake, and he felt that he should be much more 
 
A HUNGRY DAY. 
 
 77 
 
 fit for all the business that lay before him for the next day 
 if he could get a good rest now. So he kissed little George, 
 as he lay down beside him, and was soon as sound asleep as 
 all his companions. 
 
 MRS. LINACRE. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 
 
 All the party slept for some hours, as quietly and uncon- 
 sciously as little George himself. If the children were so 
 weary that the dreadful uncertainty about their father's fate 
 could not keep them awake, it is probable that a knowledge 
 of their own danger might have failed to disturb them. But 
 they had little more idea than George himself of the extent 
 of the peril they were in. They did not know that the Levels 
 were surrounded by hills on every side but towards the sea ; 
 or, if they knew, they did not consider this, because the hills 
 were a great way off. But whether they were far or near, 
 this circle of hills was the cause of the waters rising to a 
 great height in the Levels, when once the defences that had 
 kept out the sea and the rivers were broken down. As the 
 hills prevented the overflowing waters from running off on 
 three sides, it was clear that the waters must rise to the level 
 of the sea, and the rivers from which they flowed in. They 
 had not reached this height when the children lay down to 
 
 78 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 79 
 
 rest, though Ailwin was so sure that the worst was over ; and 
 the danger increased as they slept — slept too soundly even 
 to dream of accidents. 
 
 The first disturbance was from the child. Oliver became 
 aware, through his sleep, that little George was moving about 
 and laughing. Oliver murmured, " Be quiet, George. Lie 
 still, dear ;" and the child was quiet for a minute. Presently, 
 however, he moved again, and something like a dabbling in 
 water was heard, while, at the same moment, Oliver found 
 his feet cold. He roused himself with a start, felt that his 
 bed was wet, and turning out, was up to the ankles in water. 
 By the light of the embers, he saw that the floor was a pond, 
 with some shoes floating on it. His call woke Ailwin and 
 Mildred at once. Roger did not stir, though there was a 
 good deal of bustle and noise. 
 
 Mildred's bed was so high above the floor as to be still 
 quite dry. Oliver told her to stay there till he should settle 
 what was to be done next; and he took up the child to put 
 him with Mildred, asking her to strip off his drenched clothes 
 and keep him warm. All the apparel that had been taken 
 off was luckily on the top of a chest, far above the water. 
 Oliver handed this to his sister, bidding her dress herself, as 
 well as the child. He then carefully put the fire together, to 
 make as much light as possible, and then told Ailwin that 
 they must bestir themselves, as the fire would presently be 
 drowned out. 
 
 Ailwin was quite ready to bestir herself; but she had no 
 idea beyond mounting on chests, chairs, and drawers; 
 
80 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 unless, indeed, she thought of the beam which crossed the 
 ceiling, to which she was seen to cast 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 furni- 
 ture 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 
 
SUN/i/SE OVER THE LEVELS. 81 
 
 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 aoor 
 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 great 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 keep the door fastened 
 while he lifted and tied up the latch. The door shook more 
 and more ; so, having set the window wide open, he made 
 haste to scramble up to where Mildred was, wound the cord 
 which was about George's waist round his own arm, bade 
 Mildred hold the child fast, and gave notice that he was 
 going to open the door. It was a strange party, as the boy 
 could not help noting at the moment : the maid standing on 
 the bed, hugging the bedpost, and staring with frightened 
 eyes ; Roger snoring on the table, just under the sleeping 
 hen on the beam ; and the three children perched on the 
 
 6 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 top of a high chest of drawers. George took it all for play, 
 the new sash he had on, and the bolting the door, and the 
 climbing and scrambling. He laughed and kicked so that 
 his sister could scarcely hold him. 
 
 " Now for it ! " cried Oliver. 
 
 " Oh, Oliver, stop a minute ! " cried Ailwin. " Don't be 
 in such a hurry to drown us all, Oliver. Stop a moment, 
 Oliver." 
 
 Oliver knew, however, that the way to drown them all was 
 to stop. At the first pull the bolt gave way, the door burst 
 open, as if it would break from its hinges, and a great body 
 of water dashed in. The first thing the wave did was to 
 wash Roger off the table ; the next, to put out the fire with 
 a fizz, — so that there was no other light but the dawn, now 
 advancing. The waters next dashed up against the wall 
 opposite the door; and then by the rebound, with less force, 
 against the drawers on which the children sat. It then leaped 
 out of the window, leaving a troubled surface at about half 
 the height of the room. Above the noise, Ailwin was heard 
 lamenting, the chicks cluttering, the hen fluttering, and 
 George laughing and clapping his hands. 
 
 " You have George safe ? " said Oliver. " Very well ! I 
 believe we can all get out. There is Roger's head above 
 water; and I don't think it is more than up to my neck, 
 though everybody laughs at me for being a short boy." 
 
 He stepped down upon a chair, and then cautiously into 
 the water. It was very nearly up to his chin. 
 
 " That will do," said he, cheerfully. " Now, Ailwin, you 
 
SUNXZSE OVER THE LEVELS. 83 
 
 are the tallest ; — please carry George out on the roof of the 
 house, and stay there with him till I come." 
 
 Ailwin made many lamentations at having to step down 
 into the water; but she took good care of the child, carrying 
 him quite high and dry. Oliver followed, to see that he was 
 tied securely to the balustrade on the roof. While he was 
 doing this, Ailwin brought Mildred in the same way. 
 
 Mildred wanted to be of use below; but her brother 
 told her the best thing she could do was to watch and 
 amuse George, and to stand ready to receive the things 
 saved from the chambers, — she not being tall enough to do 
 any service in four feet of water. 
 
 It was a strange forlorn feeling to Mildred,— the being 
 left on the house-top in the cold grey morning, at an hour 
 when she had always hitherto been asleep in bed. The 
 world itself as she looked round her seemed unlike the one 
 she had hitherto lived in. The stars were in the sky, but 
 they were dim,— fading before the light of morning. There 
 were no fields, no gardens, no roads to be seen, — only grey 
 water, far away on every side. She could see nothing 
 beyond this grey water, except towards the east, where a line . 
 of low hills stood between her and the brightening sky. 
 Poor Mildred felt dizzy, with so much moving water before 
 her eyes, and in her ears the sound of the current below. 
 The house shook and trembled, too, under the force of the 
 flood ; so that she was glad to fix her sight on the steady 
 line of the distant hills. She spoke to George occasionally, 
 to keep him quiet; and she was ready to receive every 
 
 6—2 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 article that was handed up the stairs from below ; but, in all 
 the intervals, she fixed her eyes on the distant hills. She 
 thought how easy it would be to reach that ridge, if she were 
 a bird ; and how hard it would be to pine away on this 
 house-top, or to sink to death in these waters, for want of 
 the wings which inferior creatures had. Then she thought 
 of superior creatures that had wings too ; and she longed 
 to be an angel. She longed to be out of all this trouble 
 and fear, and considered that it would be worth while to be 
 drowned, to be as free as a bird or an angel. She resolved 
 to remember this, and not to be frightened, if the water 
 should rise and rise, till it should sweep her quite away. 
 She thought that this might have befallen her mother yes- 
 terday. No boat had been seen upon the waters in the 
 direction of Gainsborough ; no sign had reached the family 
 that any one was thinking of them at a distance, and trying 
 to save them ; and Oliver and Mildred had agreed that it 
 was likely that Mrs. Linacre had heard some report of the 
 pulling up of the sluices, and might have been on her way 
 home when the flood overtook and drowned her. If so, she 
 might be now an angel. If an angel, Mildred was sure her 
 first thought would be, as it had ever been, of her home and 
 her children ; and the little girl looked up to see whether 
 there was anything like the shadow of wings between her 
 and the dim stars. She saw nothing; but still, in some kind 
 ofhope, she softly breathed the words, "Oh, mother! mother!" 
 "Mother! mother!" shouted little George, as he over- 
 heard her. 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 85 
 
 Oliver leaped up the stairs and inquired whether there was 
 a boat —whether mother was coming. 
 
 " No, Oliver, no. I was only thinking about mother ; and 
 so, I suppose, was George. I am afraid you are disappointed. 
 I am sorry." 
 
 Oliver b't his lip to prevent crying, and could not speak 
 directly, but seemed to be gazing carefully all around the 
 waste. He said, at last, that he had many times thought that 
 his mother might come in a boat; and he thought she might 
 still, unless .... 
 
 " Unless she should be an angel now," whispered Mildred 
 — "unless she died yesterday; and then she might be with 
 us now, at this very moment, though we cannot see her, might 
 not she?" 
 
 " Yes, I believe so, dear. And, for one thing, I almost wish 
 she may not come in a boat. Who should tell her that father 
 was carried away into all those waters, without having spoken 
 one word to us?" 
 
 " If they are both dead, do you not think they are together 
 now?" asked Mildred. 
 
 " Certainly. Pastor Dendel says that all who love one 
 another well enough will live together, where they will never 
 die any more." 
 
 "And I am sure they did," said Mildred. 
 
 " If they see us now," said Oliver, " it must make a great 
 difference to them whether we are frightened and miserable, 
 or whether we behave as we ought to do. Let us try not to 
 be frightened, for their sakes, dear." 
 
86 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "And if they are not with us all the while, God is," whis- 
 pered Mildred. 
 
 "Ob, yes; but God knows . . . God will not expect . . ." 
 
 " Surely He will feel in some way as they do about us," said 
 Mildred, remembering and repeating the verse Pastor Dendel 
 had taught her. " ' Like as a father pitieth his children, so 
 the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.' " 
 
 " ' For He knoweth our frame ; He remembereth that we 
 are dust.' " So Oliver continued the psalm. 
 
 "There comes the sun!" exclaimed Mildred, happy to 
 greet some one familiar object amidst this strange scene. 
 
 The scene hardly appeared the same when the sun, after 
 first peeping above the hills like a golden star, flamed up to 
 its full size, and cast a broad glittering light over the wide 
 waters, and into the very eyes of the children. They felt the 
 warmth, too, immediately, and it was very cheering. The 
 eastern hills now almost disappeared in the sun's blaze, and 
 those to the west shone very clearly, and the southern ridge, 
 near Gainsborough, looked really but a little way off. The 
 children knew, however, that there were three full miles be- 
 tween them and any land, except their Red-hill, and a few 
 hillocks which peeped above the flood in the Levels ; and 
 there was no sign of a boat, far or near. Oliver checked a 
 sigh when he had convinced himself of this, and began to look 
 what had become of the people they knew in the Levels. 
 
 Neighbour Gool's dwelling stood low, and nothing was now 
 to be seen of it but a dark speck, which might be the top of 
 a chimney. It was possible that the whole family might have 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 
 
 87 
 
 escaped, for Gool and his wife were to be at Haxey yesterday, 
 and they might there hear of the mischief intended or done 
 to the sluices in time to save the rest of the household. Some 
 of the roofs of the hamlet of Sandtoft stood above the waters, 
 and the whole upper part of the chapel used by the foreigners, 
 
 LITTLE PRISONERS. 
 
 and many might easily have found a refuge there. Farther 
 off, a conspicuous object was the elegant crocketed spire of 
 one of the beautiful Lincolnshire churches, standing high, as 
 if inviting those who were dismayed to come and save them- 
 selves in the air from the dangers of the waters. Oliver won- 
 dered whether any sufferers were now watching the sunrise 
 from the long ridge of the church roof, or from the windows 
 of the spire. 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 One of the most curious sights was the fleets of haystacks 
 that were sailing along in the courses of the currents. As 
 the smaller stacks were sometimes shot forward rapidly, and 
 whirled round by an eddy, while a large stately stack fol- 
 lowed forwards, performing the same turns of the voyage, 
 Mildred compared them to a duck and her ducklings in the 
 pond, and Oliver to a great ship voyaging with a fleet of small 
 craft. They saw sights far more sorrowful than this. They 
 grieved over the fine large trees — some in full leaf — that they 
 saw tumbling about in the torrents which cut through the 
 stiller waters ; but it was yet worse to see dead cows, horses, 
 pigs, and sheep carried past, some directly through the garden, 
 or over the spot where the mill had stood. There were also 
 thatched roofs carried away entire, and many a chest, chair, 
 and cow-rack, showing the destruction that had gone on 
 during the night. While the distant scene was all bright and 
 lovely in the sunrise, these nearer objects, thickly strewn in 
 the muddy waters, were ugly and dismal ; and Oliver saw that 
 it did him and his sister no good to watch them. He started, 
 and said they must not be idle any longer. 
 
 Just then Ailwin called from the stairs, 
 
 " I say, Oliver, the cow is alive. I heard her low, I : m 
 certain." 
 
 " I am afraid it was only George," said Mildred. " He was 
 lowing like the cow a minute ago." 
 
 "That might be because he heard the real cow," cried 
 Oliver, with new hope. " I had rather save the cow than 
 anything. I will see if I cannot get into one of the upper 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 89 
 
 rooms that look towards the yard. We might have a bridge- 
 rope from more windows than one. Where is Roger ? What 
 is he fit for ? Is he awake ?" 
 
 " Awake ! yes, indeed," whispered Ailwin, coming close 
 up to the children. "There is more mischief about that 
 boy than you think for. He is now on the stairs, with more 
 mice, and rats, and spiders, and creeping things about him 
 than I ever saw before in all my days. We are like to be 
 devoured as we stand on our feet ; to say nothing of what 
 is to become of us if we lie down." 
 
 Mildred looked at her brother in great terror. 
 
 "We must get rid of them, if they really do us hurt," said 
 Oliver, decidedly, though with an anxious look. " We must 
 drown them, if they are mischievous. We can do that, you 
 know — at least, with the larger things. They cannot get 
 away from us." 
 
 " Drown away ! " said Ailwin, mysteriously. " Drown away ! 
 The more you drown, the more will come up. Why, did 
 you never hear of the plagues of Egypt ? " 
 
 " Yes, to be sure. What then ? " 
 
 " I take this to be a plague of Egypt that that boy has 
 brought upon us. It is his doing ; and you will see that, if 
 you will just look down from where I stand, and watch him 
 making friends with them all." 
 
 Mildred's eyes were on her brother's face as he stood where 
 Ailwin desired him, watching Roger. After looking very 
 thoughtful for some moments, he turned and exclaimed, 
 
 " There is not one word of sense in it all, Mildred. There 
 
93 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 is a wonderful number of live things there, to be sure ; and 
 here, too, all over the roof— if you look. But Roger is not 
 making friends with them. He is teasing them — hurting all 
 he can get hold of. I think the creatures have come up 
 here because the water has driven them out of their holes; 
 and that there would have been quite as many if Roger had 
 been drowned in the cam They have nothing to do with 
 Roger, or the plagues of Egypt, Mildred. Don't believe a 
 word of it.'' 
 
 " Then I wish Ailwin would not say such things," replied 
 Mildred. 
 
 Ailwin persisted that time would show what Roger was — 
 to which they all agreed. Oliver observed that meanwhile 
 Ailwin, who was the oldest person among them, should not 
 try to frighten a little girl, who was the youngest of all, 
 except George. Ailwin said she should keep her own 
 thoughts ; though, to be sure, she need not always say what 
 they were to everybody. 
 
 " About this cow," thought Oliver aloud. " We must 
 plan some way to feed her.'' 
 
 " Take care ! " exclaimed Mildred, as he began to descend 
 the stairs. But the words were scarcely out of her mouth 
 when her brother called to her that the water had sunk. 
 She ran to see, and saw, with her own eyes, that the water 
 did not quite come up to the wet mark it had left on the 
 wall of the stairs. Ailwin thought but little of it — it was 
 such a trifle ; and Oliver allowed that it might be a mere 
 accident, arising from the flood having found some new vent 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 9! 
 
 about the house ; but still, the water had sunk ; and that 
 was a sight full of hope. 
 
 " Have you heard the cow low, Roger ? " asked Oliver. 
 
 "Yes, to be sure. She may well low, for she must be 
 hungry enough." 
 
 " And wet and cold enough, too, poor thing. I am going 
 to see whether I can find out exactly where she is, and 
 whether we cannot do something for her." 
 
 Ailwin called downstairs to Oliver, to say that there was 
 a washtub floating about in the room they had slept in. If 
 he could find it, he might row himself about in that in the 
 chambers, instead of always wading in the water, catching 
 his death of cold. 
 
 Oliver took the hint, and presently appeared in the tub, 
 rowing himself with a slip of the wood he had brought over 
 from the Red-hill. Roger stared at him as he rowed him- 
 self out of one chamber, and opened the door of another, 
 entering it in fine style. Roger presently followed to see 
 what was doing, and perhaps to try how he liked a voyage 
 in a tub in a large chamber. 
 
 "I see her," cried Oliver, from the window. "I see the 
 poor cow's head and the ridge of her back above water." 
 
 Roger came splashing to the window to look, and jumped 
 into the tub, making it sink a good deal; but it held both 
 the boys very well. Roger thought the cow very stupid 
 that she did not get upon the great dunghill behind her, 
 which would keep her whole body out of the water. Oliver 
 thought that, as the dunghill was behind her, she could not 
 
92 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 see it. He wished he could go and put her in mind of it. 
 He thought he would try to cross in the tub if he could so 
 connect it with the window as that it might be drawn back, 
 in case of his being unable to pass the little current that 
 there was between the house and the ruins of the yard- 
 buildings, of which little remained. 
 
 " I '11 go too," said Roger. 
 
 " Either you will go, or I," said Oliver. " One must stay 
 to manage the rope, in case of the tub upsetting. You had 
 better let me go, Roger, because the poor cow knows me." 
 
 Roger, however, chose to go. Oliver asked him whether 
 he could milk a cow, because some milk must be got for 
 George, if possible. He said, very gravely, that his poor 
 little brother would die, he thought, if they could not get 
 milk for him. 
 
 Roger laughed at the doubt whether he could milk cows. 
 He did it every day of his life when fishing and fowling, with 
 his uncle, in the carr. Oliver now guessed how it was that 
 the milk of their good cow had sometimes unaccountably 
 run short. Ailwin had observed that this never happened 
 but when the Redfurns were in the neighbourhood ; and she 
 had always insisted upon it that they had bewitched the cow. 
 Oliver knew that she would say so now. He said so much, 
 and said it so seriously, about the necessity of milk for little 
 George, that he thought not even a Redfurn could have the 
 heart to drink up all the milk. He gave Roger a brown 
 pitcher for the milk, and helped, very cleverly, to fasten the 
 cord to the tub. They passed the cord through the back of 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 
 
 93 
 
 a heavy old-fashioned chair that stood in the room, lest any 
 sudden pull should throw Oliver out of the window ; he then 
 established himself on the window-sill, above the water, to 
 manage his line, and watch what Roger would do. 
 
 Roger pulled very skilfully; much more so, from his 
 strength and from practice, than Oliver could have done. 
 
 ROGER'S PRIZE. 
 
 He avoided logs of wood, trees, and other heavy things that 
 floated past ; and this was nearly all he did till the line had 
 quite run out, so that he could not be carried any farther 
 down. Then he began diligently working his way up to- 
 wards the cow. He had got half-way to his object, when 
 he paused a moment, and then changed his course— to 
 Oliver's surprise; for the thing which appeared to have 
 attracted his attention was a small copper boiler. Plenty of 
 such things swept past before, and nobody had thought of 
 
94 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 wanting them. It was plain, however, that Roger had a 
 fancy for this particular copper boiler, for he carefully way- 
 laid it, and arrested it with his paddle. Oliver then saw 
 that some live animal leaped from the boiler into the tub. 
 He saw Roger seize the boiler, and take it into the tub ; 
 catch up the animal, whatever it might be, and nurse it in 
 his arms, and then talce something out of his pocket, and 
 stoop down. Oliver was pretty sure he was killing some- 
 thing with his knife. 
 
 Whatever Roger was doing, he had soon done. By this 
 time he had again been carried down as far as the line would 
 allow; and the additional weight he had now on board his 
 tub made it harder work for him to paddle up again. He 
 did it ; however, and brought his odd little boat into still 
 water, between the dunghill and the cow. After looking about 
 him for a while, he threw out the boiler and the pitcher upon 
 the dunghill, seized a pitchfork which was stuck upright in 
 it, and, his craft being thus lightened, made for the ruins of 
 the cart-shed and stable. 
 
 Of these buildings there remained only wrecks of the walls, 
 and a few beams and rafters standing up in the air, or lying 
 across each other, without any thatch to cover them. Some- 
 thing must be left inside, however, for Roger was busy with 
 his pitchfork. This something must be valuable, too, for 
 Roger, after carefully feeling the depth, jumped out of the 
 tub, and went on filling it while he stood in the water. Oliver 
 thought this very daring, till, glancing at the cow, he was sure 
 he saw more of her neck and back; and, examining the wall 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 
 
 95 
 
 of the house, he perceived that the flood had sunk some 
 inches since Roger began to cross. 
 
 When the tub was heaped up with what looked like wet 
 straw, Roger pushed it before him towards the cow, carefully 
 feeling his way, but never sinking so much as to have the water 
 above his shoulders. 
 
 " Capital! Now, that is clever! " said Oliver aloud, as he 
 sat at the window and saw what Roger was about. " He is 
 going to lift her up out of the water. How she struggles to 
 help herself! She knows there is somebody caring for her, 
 and she will do what she can for herself." 
 
 This was true. Roger thrust the straw he had brought 
 under the cow with his pitchfork. He had to bring three 
 loads before she could raise her whole body; but then she 
 stood, poor thing, with only her trembling legs in the water. 
 Roger turned her head so that she saw the dunghill just 
 behind her, and with some encouragement, made one more 
 vigorous scramble to reach it. She succeeded ; and Roger 
 whipped up the pitcher, and was certainly trying to milk her. 
 She could not, however, be prevented from lying down. Oliver 
 was more angry than he had almost ever been in his life when 
 he saw Roger kick her repeatedly in different parts of her 
 body, pull her by the tail, and haul up her head with a rope 
 he had found in the stable. The poor cow never attempted 
 to rise, and it was clear that she wanted comfort, and not ill 
 usage. Oliver determined that when Roger came back he 
 would not speak a word to him. 
 
 Roger set about returning presently, when he found that 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 nothing could be got from the cow. He took his boiler on 
 board, and pulled himself in by the line, without troubling 
 himself to paddle. 
 
 When he came in at the window, he threw down the pit- 
 cher, swearing at himself for the trouble he had taken about 
 a good-for-nothing beast that had been standing starving in 
 the water till she had not a drop of milk to give. He looked 
 at Oliver, as if rather surprised that he did not speak; but 
 Oliver took no notice of him. 
 
 It was a hare that Roger had in his boiler, — a hare that 
 had, no doubt, leaped into the boiler when pressed by a still 
 more urgent danger than sailing down the stream in such a 
 boat. Roger had cut her throat with his pocket-knife; and 
 there she lay in her own blood. 
 
 "Don't you touch that,'' said Roger, as he landed his booty 
 upon the window-sill. "If you lay a finger on that, it will be 
 the worse for you. They are mine, both puss and the boiler." 
 
 Still Oliver did not speak. H e wondered what R.oger meant 
 to do with these things, if nobody else was to touch them. 
 
 Roger soon made it clear what his intentions were. He 
 whistled to his dog, which scampered downstairs to him from 
 the top of the house; put dog. puss, and boiler into the clothes- 
 basket, and pulled himself over with them to the Red-hill, 
 taking care to carry the tinder-box with him. There he made 
 a fire, skinned and cooked his hare, and, with his dog, made 
 a feast of it, under a tree. 
 
 Nobody grudged him his feast; though the children were 
 sorry to find that any one could be so selfish, Ailwin was 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 97 
 
 glad to be rid of him on any terms; and, as soon as Oliver 
 was sure that he was occupied for some time to come, so that 
 he would not be returning to make mischief, he resolved to 
 go over to the cow, and give her something better than kicks; 
 — food, if, as he thought, he could procure some. Saying no- 
 thing to any one, he tied the tub-line to a bedpost, as being 
 more trustworthy still than the heavy chair, and carried with 
 him the great knife that the meat had been cut with the 
 evening before. He made for the stable first, and joined the 
 rope he knew to be there to his line, so as to make it twice 
 the length it was before. He could now reach the field be- 
 hind the stable, where the corn, just turning from green to 
 yellow, had been standing high at this hour yesterday. He 
 had to paddle very carefully here, lest his tub should be 
 knocked to pieces against the stone wall. But the wall, 
 though not altogether thrown down, had so many breaches 
 made in it, that he found himself in the field, without exactly 
 knowing whether he had come through the gateposts or 
 through the wall. He lost no time in digging with his paddle ; 
 and, as he had hoped, he turned up ears of corn from under 
 the water, which he could catch hold of, a handful at a time, 
 and cut off with his knife. It was very tiresome, slow work; 
 and sometimes he was near losing his paddle, and sometimes 
 his knife. He persevered, however: now resting for a minute 
 or two, and then eating a few of the ears, and thinking that 
 only very hungry people could swallow them, soaked as they 
 were with bad water. He ate more than he would have 
 done, remembering that the more he took now, the less he 
 
 7 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 should want of the portion he meant to carry to the house, 
 when he should have fed the cow. He hoped they should 
 obtain some better food; but, if no flour was to be had, and 
 no other vegetable than this, it would be better than none. 
 
 When he reached the cow, she devoured the heads of corn 
 ravenously. She could not have appeared better satisfied 
 with the sweetest spring grass. It was a pleasure to see her 
 eyes as she lay, receiving her food from Oliver's hand. He 
 emptied out all he had brought beside her, and patted her, 
 saying he hoped she would give George some milk in the 
 afternoon, in return for what had been done for her now. 
 
 Oliver felt so tired and weak when he got home with his 
 tub half full of soaked corn-ears, that he felt as if he could not 
 do anything more He was very near crying when he found 
 that there was not a morsel to eat; that the very water was 
 too bad to drink; and that there was no fire, from Roger 
 having carried off the tinder-box. But George was crying 
 with hunger; and that made Oliver ashamed to do the same, 
 and put him upon thinking what was to be done next. 
 
 Ailwin was the only person wh , being as strong as Roger, 
 could have got anything from him by force; and there was no 
 use in asking Ailwin to cross the bridge-rope, or to do any- 
 thing which would bring her nearer to the boy s.ie feared so 
 much. Besides that, Roger had carried over the clothes- 
 basket, without leaving any line to pull it back by. Oliver 
 felt that he (if he were only a little less hungry and tired) 
 could make the trip in a sack, or a tub, or even a kettle ; but 
 a tall woman like Ailwin could cross in nothing smaller than 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 
 
 99 
 
 AN IMPROMPTU BRIDGE. 
 
 the missing clothes-basket. It was clear that Oliver alone 
 could go, and that he must go for the tinder-box before any 
 comfort was to be had. 
 
 He made up his mind to this, therefore ; and having, with 
 Ailwin's help, slung the useful tub upon the bridge-rope, so 
 
 7—2 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 that he might start the first moment that Roger should be 
 out of sight or asleep, he rested himself in the window, 
 watching what passed on the Red-hill. He observed that 
 Roger seemed quite secure that no one could follow him, as 
 he had carried off the basket. There he lay, near the fire, 
 eating the meat he had broiled, and playing with his dog. It 
 seemed to the hungry watchers as if he meant to lie there all 
 day. After a while, however, he rose, and sauntered towards 
 > the trees, among which he disappeared, as if going to the other 
 side of the hill, to play, or to set his dog upon game. 
 
 Oliver was off, sliding along the bridge-rope in his tub. 
 He did not forget to carry the line with which to bring back 
 the basket. It seemed to him that Roger intended to live 
 by himself on the Red-hill; and to this none of the party had 
 any objection. He had swum over to the house once, when 
 the stream was higher and more rapid than now; and he 
 could come again, if he found himself really in want of any- 
 thing; so that nobody need be anxious for him. Meantime, 
 no one at the house desired his company. Oliver therefore 
 took with him a blanket and a rug, and a knife and fork for 
 his accommodation. 
 
 He alighted under the beech without difficulty, and laid 
 down the articles he brought under the tree, where Roger 
 would be sure to see them. He took the flint and the tinder 
 from the tinder-box, and pocketed them, leaving the steel and 
 the box for Roger's use, as there were knives at home, and 
 Roger might perhaps find a flint on the hill ; there were 
 plenty in the quarry. Oliver knew he must be quick; but he 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 101 
 
 could not help looking round for something to eat, — some 
 one of the many animals and birds that he knew to be on the 
 hill, and heard moving about him on every side. But he had 
 no means of catching any. The bones of the hare were lying 
 about, picked quite clean by the dog; but not a morsel of 
 meat was left in sight. 
 
 Something very precious, however, caught Oliver's eye, — 
 a great heap of pebbly gravel thrown up by the flood. The 
 water in the Levels was usually so bad that the settlers had 
 to filter it ; and Oliver knew that no water was purer than 
 that which had been filtered through gravel. He believed 
 now that poor George could have a good drink of water, at 
 least; and he scooped up with his hands enough gravel to 
 half fill the tub. It took a long time to heap up as much as 
 he could carry upon the rug ; and then it was hard work to 
 empty it into the tub ; and he fancied every moment that he 
 heard Roger coming. It was a pity he did not know that 
 Roger had fallen fast asleep in the sun, on the other side of 
 the hill, and that his dog lay winking beside him, not think 
 ing of stirring. 
 
 One thing more must be had;— chips for fuel. When 
 Oliver had got enough of these, and of sticks too, he found 
 courage and strength to stay a few minutes more, to make up 
 such a fire for Roger as would probably last till after he 
 should have discovered the loss of the flint, and so prevent 
 his being without fire till he could find another flint. In 
 order to give him a broad hint, Oliver spread out the blanket 
 on the ground, and set the tinder-box in the middle of it, 
 
103 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 where it would be sure to invite attention. He then climbed 
 into the tub, and was glad to be off, drawing the basket with 
 the firewood after him. 
 
 " Here, Ailwin," said he faintly, as he reached the window, 
 " take the flint and the tinder, and the wood in the basket, 
 and make a fire. I have brought you nothing to eat." 
 
 "No need!" said Ailwin, with an uncommonly merry 
 countenance. 
 
 " You must broil the green corn, unless we can manage to 
 get a fowl from across the yard. But I really cannot go any 
 more errands till I am rested," said Oliver, dismally. 
 
 " No need, Oliver, dear ! " said Ailwin again. 
 
 " What do you think we have found to eat?" cried Mildred 
 from the stairs. — "What is the matter with him, Ailwin? 
 Why does not he speak ? " 
 
 " He is so tired, he does not know what to do," said Ailwin. 
 "No, don't get down into the water again, dear. I'll carry 
 you. Put your arm round my neck, and I'll carry you.'' 
 
 And the good-natured woman carried him up to the roof, 
 and laid him down on a bundle of bedding there, promising 
 to bring him breakfast presently. She threw an apron over 
 his head, to cover it from the hot sun, and bade him lie still, 
 and not think of anything till she came. 
 
 " Only one thing," said Oliver. " Take particular care of 
 the gravel in the tub." 
 
 " Gravel ! " exclaimed Ailwin. " The fowls eat gravel, but 
 I don't see that we can. However, you shall have your way, 
 Oliver." 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 103 
 
 The tired boy was asleep in a moment. He knew nothing 
 more till he felt vexed at somebody's trying to wake him. 
 It was Mildred. He heard her say, 
 
 " How very sound asleep he is ! I can't make him stir. 
 Here, Oliver, just eat this, and then you can go to sleep again 
 directly." 
 
 He tried to rouse himself, and sat up ; but his eyes were 
 so dim, and the light so dazzling, that he could not see at 
 first what Mildred had in her hands. It was one of her 
 mother's best china plates — one of the set that was kept in 
 a closet upstairs; and upon it was a nice brown toasted fish, 
 steaming hot. 
 
 " Is that for me?" asked Oliver, rubbing his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, for who but you ?" said Ailwin, whose smil- 
 ing face popped up from the stairs. "Who deserves it, if 
 you do not, I should like to know? It is not so good as I 
 could have wished, though, Oliver. I could not broil it, for 
 want of butter and everything; and we have no salt, you 
 know. But, come ! eat it, such as it is. Come, begin !" 
 
 " But have you all got some too ?" asked the hungry boy, 
 as he eyed the fish. 
 
 " Oh, yes — George and all," said Mildred. " We ate ours 
 first, because you were so sound asleep, we did not like to 
 wake you.'' 
 
 " How long have I been asleep?" asked Oliver, beginning 
 heartily upon his fish. " How could you get this nice fish ? 
 How busy you must have been all this time that I have 
 been asleep!" 
 
ioi THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "All this time!" exclaimed Mildred. "Why, you have 
 been asleep only half an hour ; hardly so much. We have 
 only just lighted the fire, and cooked the fish, and fed 
 Geordie, and put him to sleep, and got our own breakfast ; 
 — and we were not long about that, — we were so very hun- 
 gry ! That is all we have done since you went to sleep.'' 
 
 " It seems a great deal for half an hour, 1 ' said Oliver. 
 " How good this fish is ! Where did you get it?" 
 
 " I found it on the stairs. Ah ! I thought you would 
 not believe it; but we shall find more, I daresay, as the 
 water sinks, and then you will believe what you see.'' 
 
 "On the stairs ! How did it get there?" 
 
 "The same way that the water got there, suppose, and 
 the poor little drowned pig that lay close by the same place. 
 There was a whole heap of fish washed up at the turn of 
 the stairs ; enough for us all to day. Aihvin said we must 
 eat them first, because the pig will keep. Such a nice little 
 clean sucking pig !" 
 
 " That puts me in mind of the poor sow," said Oliver. 
 " I forgot her when we were busy about the cow. I am 
 afraid she is drowned or starved before this ; but we must 
 see about it.'' 
 
 " Not now,'' said Mildred. " Do you go to sleep again 
 now. There is not such a hurry as there was, the waters are 
 going down so fast." 
 
 "Are they, indeed ?— Oh, I do not want to sleep any 
 more. I am quite wide awake now. Are you sure the flood 
 is going down?" 
 
SUNRISE OVER THE LEVELS. 10$ 
 
 " Only look ! Look at that steep red bank on the Red- 
 hill, where it was all a green slope yesterday, and covered 
 with water this morning. Look at the little speck of a hillock, 
 
 A HOT BREAKFAST. 
 
 where neighbour Gool's house was. We could not see that 
 this morning, I am sure.' And if you will come down, you 
 will find that there is scarcely any water in the upper rooms 
 now. Geordie might play at paddling there, as he is so 
 
166 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 fond of doing in his tub. Ailwin thinks we might sleep 
 there to-night, if we could only get everything dried." 
 
 " We might get many things dried before night, in such 
 a sun as this. How very hot it is ! " 
 
 Oliver ran down, and convinced himself that the flood 
 was abating fast. It must have swelled up higher within 
 the house than outside ; for it had sunk three feet in the 
 upper rooms, and two on the outer walls of the house. Now 
 that the worst of the danger seemed to be past, the children 
 worked with fresh spirit, making all possible use of the 
 sunshine for drying their bedding and clothes, in hopes of 
 sleeping in a chamber this night, instead of on the house-top, 
 which they had feared would be necessary. Nothing could 
 have made them believe, if they had been told at sunrise, 
 how cheerfully they would sit down, in the afternoon, to 
 rest and talk, and hope that they might, after all, meet 
 their father and mother again soon, alive and well. 
 
<Mft 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 There lay Roger under the tree, thinking that there was 
 nothing to prevent his having all his own way now, and that 
 he was going to be very happy. He had always thought it 
 hard that he could not have his own way entirely, and had 
 been unsatisfied with a much greater degree of liberty than 
 most people wish or have. 
 
 He had hitherto led a wandering life, having no home 
 duties, no school to go to, no trade to work at, no garden, 
 or other pleasure, to fix him to one spot. He had gone 
 with his uncle, from sporting on the moors, in one season of 
 the year, to sporting in the marshes in another; and, wild 
 as was this way of life, it made his will so much wilder, that 
 he was always wishing for more liberty still. When his 
 aunt had desired him to watch the kettle, as it hung over 
 the fire near the tent, or asked him to help her in shaking 
 out their bedding or cleaning their utensils, he had turned 
 sulky, and wished that he lived alone, where he need not 
 
 107 
 
Io8 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 be plagued about other peoples' affairs. When his uncle 
 had ordered him to attend at a certain spot and hour, with 
 nets or a gun, he had been wont to feel himself seized with 
 a sudden desire to wander in an opposite direction, or to lie 
 half asleep in the sun, too lazy to work at all. When he 
 had played truant, and returned late to the tent, and found 
 nothing better left to eat than a dry crust of bread, or the 
 cold remains of a mess of fish, he had frequently thought 
 how pleasant it would be to have the best of everything for 
 himself, and only his dog to eat up the rest. So this boy 
 had often, felt and thought ; and so would many think and 
 feel, perhaps, if there were many as forlorn and friendless as 
 he, with no one to love and be loved by. Though he had 
 had an uncle and aunt, he had never had a friend. He knew 
 that they cared about him only because he could help to 
 keep the tent and take the game ; and, feeling this, it was 
 irksome to him to be under their orders. 
 
 The time was now come for which he had so often longed. 
 He was his own master completely. There was nobody 
 near who could order or compel him to do anything ; while 
 he, on his part, had an obedient servant in his dog. The 
 sky was blue and warm overhead, and the trees cast a plea- 
 sant shade. The Red-hill was now an island, which he had 
 all to himself; and it was richly stocked with game, for hi s 
 food and sport. Here he could have his own way and be 
 completely happy. 
 
 Such was Roger's idea when he stole the tinder-box and 
 crossed to the hill ; and this was what he said to himself 
 
ROGER HTS OWN MASTER. 109 
 
 as he cooked his meal, and when he lay aown after it on the 
 grass, with the bees humming round him, and the sound of 
 the waters being now a pleasant ripple, instead of the rush 
 and roar of yesterday. He desired his dog to lie down, and 
 not disturb him; and he took this opportunity to change 
 the animal's name. Stephen Redfurn, taking up the quarrel 
 of the day against the bishops, would have the dog called 
 " Bishop,'' and nothing else. Roger had always wished to 
 call him " Spy ; "' but Bishop would never answer to the 
 name of Spy, or even seem to hear it. Now, however, 
 Bishop was to be Spy, as there was no one here to indulge 
 the dog with his old name; and Spy was told so many times 
 over, and with all the devices that could be thought of, for 
 impressing the fact on his memory. 
 
 This lesson being given, Roger shut his eyes, and thought 
 he would sleep as long as he chose ; but, in the first place, 
 he found himself too much heated for sleep. He con- 
 sidered that it was no wonder, after broiling himself in 
 making a fire to broil his hare. He wished animals ran 
 about ready cooked — as fruits grow on the sunny side of 
 trees. It was too bad to have to bustle and toil for an 
 hour, to get ready what was eaten in ten minutes ; and it 
 just passed through his mind that, whatever Nan Redfurn 
 might have sometimes said and done to him, she had usually 
 saved him all trouble in cooking, and had had his meals 
 ready for him whenever he chose to be at the tent at meal- 
 times. He rose, and thought he could find a cooler place, 
 farther under the trees. 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 He did so, and again lay down. Sleep began to steal 
 over him ; and, at the same time, the thought crept into 
 his mind that he should never more see Stephen Redfurn. 
 The ideas that come when one is dropping asleep are very 
 vivid; and this one started Roger so, that Spy found it out 
 and pricked up his ears as if at some alarm. This thought 
 would not go away ; for it so happened that the last words 
 that Stephen and Roger had spoken together were angry 
 ones. Stephen had ordered Roger to carry the fry they 
 had fished for manure to a field, where he had promised to 
 deposit it by a certain time. Roger had been sure that 
 the fish would be better for lying in the sun a while longer, 
 and refused to touch it. No matter which was right about 
 the manure; both were wrong in being angry. Stephen had 
 said that Roger was a young rascal, who would never come 
 to good ; and Roger had looked impertinently in his uncle's 
 face, while whistling to the dog to come with him and make 
 sport among the water-fowl. It was that face — that counte- 
 nance of his uncle's, as he had last seen it, which was before 
 Roger's eyes now, as he lay dozing. With it came the angry 
 tones of Stephen's voice, saying that he would never come 
 to good. Mixed and confused with this was the roar of a 
 coming flood, and a question (how and whence spoken he 
 knew not) whether his uncle might not possibly have been 
 saved, if he had not, against orders, carried away Bishop — 
 for the dog was still Bishop in his master's dreams. 
 
 Roger started bolt upright, and looked about him. He 
 felt very tired, but he thought he would not lie down again 
 
ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 in 
 
 just yet. It was odd that he could not get sound asleep, so 
 tired as he was. If he should not sleep better than this at 
 night, what should he do ? He wished he had some more 
 
 ROGER CHASING WILD-FOWL. 
 
 of that woman's cherry-brandy. He had slept sound 
 enough after drinking that. It was well for Roger that he 
 was not now within reach of intoxicating liquors— the state 
 of his mind would probably have made a drunkard of him. 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 His mind ran strangely on his uncle, and his uncle's last 
 looks and words, even as he stood wide awake, and staring 
 at the beehives. A rustle in the briers behind him made 
 him jump as if he had been shot. It was only a partridge 
 taking wing. 
 
 ' : Whirr away,'' said Roger to her. "You can't go far. 
 You will have to light again upon my island. You all belong 
 to me, you swarming creatures. You may run about awhile 
 and flutter away a bit ; but you will all belong to me at last, 
 with Spy to help me. I '11 have some sport now. Here, 
 Spy! Spy!" 
 
 Spy had disappeared, and did not come when called. A 
 whistle brought him, however, at last. He came out of the 
 thicket, licking his chops. Being commanded to bring his 
 game, he soon produced two rabbits. It was easy work for 
 the dog to catch them, for the poor creatures had no holes 
 here. They had come to this raised ground from a warren 
 some way off, where they had been soaked out of their holes. 
 
 Spy was praised for everything but not answering to his 
 name. For that he was lectured, and then sent off again to 
 try what he could find. He brought in prey of various 
 kinds, for he could not stir among the trees without starting 
 some. During the fun, as Roger thought it, while the terri- 
 fied birds were fluttering among the branches of the trees, 
 and the scared animals bursting through the thicket, Roger 
 resolved that he would not plague himself with any more 
 thoughts of Stephen and Nan. If they were drowned, it 
 was none of his doing ; and as fcr Stephen's anger yester- 
 
ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 1 13 
 
 day, there was nothing new in that; Stephen was angry 
 every day of his life. He would not be scared out of his 
 sleep any more by nonsense. He would not give up having 
 his own way to see Stephen and Nan under these very trees; 
 and, as he had got his own way at last, he would enjoy it. 
 
 This mood went on till there was such a heap of dead 
 animals, that Roger began to think whether he could skin 
 them all and clean their skins in such hot weather as this, 
 before they were unfit for any use. As for eating them, 
 here was twenty times as much food as could be eaten while 
 it was good. He did just remember the children and Ailwin, 
 and how much they probably wanted food ; but he settled 
 that it was no business of his; and he was not going to 
 trouble himself to leave his island for anybody. He would 
 call in Spy, and tie him up ; for there must be no more 
 game killed to-day. 
 
 Spy did not come for any calling, — for anything short of 
 the well-known whistle, as Roger would not utter the name 
 of Bishop. Roger grew very angry at being obeyed no better 
 than this ; and his last whistle was so shrill that the dog 
 seemed to know what it threatened, refused to answer it as 
 long as he dared, and then came unwillingly, with fear in 
 every attitude. He gave a low whine when he saw his master, 
 as he had good reason to do. Roger tied him to a tree, 
 and then gave loose to his passion. He thrashed the dog 
 with a switch till the poor creature's whine was heard and 
 pitied by the children and Ailwin on their house-top ; and 
 there is no knowing how long the whipping might not have 
 
114 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 gone on, if the animal had not at last turned furious, and 
 snapped at Roger in a way which made him think of giving 
 over, and finding something else to do with his sovereignty. 
 
 He found it was rather dull work, so far, having all his 
 own way, in an island of his own. At last, he bethought 
 himself of an amusement he had been fond of before he 
 lived so much in the moors and the carrs. He bethought 
 himself of bird's-nesting. It was too late for eggs ; but he 
 thought the bird-families might not have all dispersed. Here 
 were plenty of trees, and they must be full of birds ; for, 
 though they were silent to-day (he did wish the place was 
 not quite so silent !) they sometimes sent their warblings so 
 far over the carr, that Nan Redfurn would mention them in 
 the tent. He would see what ailed them, that they would 
 not give him any music to-day. By incessant cooing, he 
 obtained an answer from one solitary pigeon ; which he took 
 advantage of to climb the tree, and look for the nest. He 
 found a nest; but there was nothing in it. He climbed 
 several trees, and found abundance of nests ; but all deserted. 
 Except his solitary pigeon (which presently vanished), there 
 appeared to be not a winged creature in all those trees. The 
 birds had been frightened away by the roar of the flood of 
 yesterday ; and, perhaps, by seeing the fields, to which they 
 had been wont to resort for their food, all turned into a 
 waste of muddy waters. 
 
 Roger threw to the ground every empty nest he found, 
 from the common inability of a boy to keep his hands off a 
 bird's-nest. When he was tired of climbing trees, he picked 
 
ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 115 
 
 up all the scattered nests, and laid them in a long row on 
 the grass. They looked dismal enough. It is disagreeable 
 to see a range of houses left half-built (such as may be seen 
 in the neighbourhood of large towns), with the doorways 
 gaping, and the window-spaces empty, and roofs hardly 
 covering in the dark inside ; but such a row of houses is less 
 dismal than Roger's array of bird's-nests. There is something 
 in the very make of a bird's-nest which rouses thoughts of 
 blue or red-spotted eggs, of callow young birds, with their 
 large hungry eyes and beaks, or of twittering fledgelings, 
 training for a summer life of pleasure. To see, instead of 
 these, their silent empty habitations, extended in a long row, 
 would be enough to make any one dull and sad. So Roger 
 found. He kicked them into a heap under a tree, and 
 thought that they would make a fine crackling fire, He 
 would burn them, every one. 
 
 While he was wondering whether any birds would come 
 back to miss their nests, it struck him that he had not thought 
 how he was to pass the night. It was nothing new to bin! 
 to sleep in the open air. He liked it best at this season. 
 But he had usually had a rug to lie upon, with the tent over 
 him ; or a blanket ; or, at worst, he had a sack to creep into. 
 The clothes he had on were old and thin ; and, as he looked 
 at them, it made him angry to think that he was not to have 
 everything as he liked it, after all. Here he should have to 
 pass a cold night, and with nothing between him and the 
 hard ground. He thought of gathering leaves, moss, and 
 high grass, to roll himself up in, like a squirrel in its hole ; 
 
 8— n 
 
Ii6 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 but the trouble was what he did not like. He stood list- 
 lessly thinking how much trouble it would cost to collect 
 moss and leaves for the purpose, and, while he was so 
 thinking, he went on pelting his dog with birds'-nests, and 
 seeing how the angry dog, unable to get loose, snapped 
 
 up and shook to pieces the nests which fell within his 
 reach. 
 
 Roger knew that he ought to be skinning some of the 
 dead animals, if he really meant to secure all their skins 
 before it was too late ; but this also was troublesome. Instead 
 of doing this, he went round the hill to see what the Linacres 
 were about, resolving by no means to appear to see them, 
 if they should be making signs from the window to have the 
 things back again that he had carried away. On coming out 
 of the shade on that side of the hill, he was surprised to see 
 smoke still going up from his fire, considering that the fire 
 was nearly out when he had left it. Something more strange 
 met his eye as he ran forward. There was the nice clean 
 blanket spread out on the ground, with the tinder-box in the 
 middle. 
 
 " Somebody has been here ! " cried Roger, much offended. 
 " What business has anybody in my island ? Coming when 
 my back is turned ! If I had only heard them coming to 
 meddle " 
 
 Just then, his eye fell on the rug, blanket, and knife and 
 fork left by Oliver— the very accommodation he had been 
 wishing for, and more. When he felt the thick warm rug, 
 he gave over his anger at some one having entered his island 
 
ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 117 
 
 without his leave, and, for a moment, again felt pleased and 
 happy. But when he saw that the bridge-basket was gone — 
 that other people had the means of coming in upon him 
 when they pleased — he was more angry than he had been all 
 day. 
 
 CAMPING OUT. 
 
 " However," thought he, " I got over to the house before 
 any one else crossed the water, and I can do the same again 
 whenever I please. I have only to swim over with Spy, and 
 bring away anything I like, while they are busy on the other 
 side, about their good-for-nothing cow, or something. That 
 will be tit-for-tat." 
 
 He was doubly mistaken here. His going over to steal 
 
n8 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 comforts from the Linacres would not be tit-for-tat for Oliver's 
 coming over to his father's hill, to bring away his mother's 
 clothes-basket, and leave comforts for an unwelcome visitor ! 
 Neither could Roger now enter the Linacres' dwelling when 
 he pleased by swimming the stream. He saw this, when he 
 examined and considered. The water had sunk so as to 
 show a few inches of the top of the entrance-door and lower 
 windows. It was not high enough to allow of his getting in 
 at the upper window, as he did yesterday, and too high for 
 entrance below. The stream appeared to be as rapid and 
 strong as ever, and it shot its force through the carr as vehe- 
 mently as at first, for it was almost or quite as deep as ever. 
 It had worn away soil at the bottom of its channel, to nearly 
 or quite the same depth as it had sunk at the surface ; so 
 that it was still working against the walls and foundation of 
 the house and the soil of the hill with as much force as 
 during the first hour. 
 
 When Roger examined the red precipice from which he 
 looked down upon the rushing stream, he perceived that not 
 a yard of Linacre's garden could now be in existence. That 
 garden, with its flourishing vegetables, its rare, gay, sweet 
 flowers, and its laden fruit-trees, — that garden which he and 
 Stephen could not help admiring, while they told everybody 
 that it had no business in the middle of their carr, — that 
 garden, its earth and its plants, was all spread in ruins over 
 the marsh ; and instead of it would be found, if the waters 
 could be dried up, a deep, gravelly, stony watercourse, or a 
 channel of red mud. Rcger wondered whether the boy and 
 
ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 119 
 
 girl were aware of this fate of their garden j or whether they 
 supposed that everything stood fast and in order under the 
 waters. He wanted to point out the truth to them ; and 
 looked up to the chamber window, in hopes that they might 
 be watching him from it. No one was there, however. On 
 glancing higher he saw them sitting within the balustrade on 
 the roof. They were all looking another way, and not ap- 
 pearing to think of him at all. He watched them for a long 
 while, but they never turned towards the Red-hill. He could 
 have made them hear by calling; but they might think he 
 wished to be with them, or wanted something from them, 
 instead of understanding that he desired to tell them that 
 their pretty garden was destroyed. So he began to settle with 
 himself which of his dead game he would have for supper, 
 and then fed his fire, in order to cook it He now thought 
 that he should have liked a bird for supper — a pheasant or 
 partridge, instead of a rabbit or leveret, of which he had 
 plenty. He felt it very provoking that he had neither a net 
 nor a gun for securing feathered game when there was so 
 much on the hill ; so that he must put up with four-footed 
 game, when he had rather have had a bird. There was no 
 bread either, or vegetables; but he minded that less because 
 neither of these were at hand, and he had often lived for a 
 long time together on animal food. During the whole time 
 of his listless preparations for cooking his supper he glanced 
 up occasionally at the roof, but he never once saw the party 
 look his way. He thought it very odd that they should care 
 so much less about him than he knew they did when Stephen 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 and he came into the carr. They neither seemed to want 
 him nor to fear him to-day. 
 
 At length he went to set Spy loose, in order to feed him 
 and to have a companion, for he felt rather dull while seeing 
 how busily the party on the house-top were talking. When 
 he returned with Spy the sun had set, and there was no one 
 on the house-top. A faint light from the chamber window 
 told that Ailwin and the children were there. Roger won- 
 dered how they had managed to kindle a fire while he had 
 the tinder-box. He learned the truth soon after, by upsetting 
 the tinder-box as he moved the blanket. The steel fell out, 
 and the flint and tinder were found to be absent. In his 
 present mood he considered it a prodigious impertinence to 
 impose upon him the labour of finding a flint the next day, 
 and the choice whether to make tinder of a bit of his shirt 
 or to use shavings of wood instead. He determined to show 
 meanwhile that he had plenty of fire for to-night, and there- 
 fore heaped it up so high that there was some danger that 
 the lower branches of the ash under which he sat wculd 
 shrivel up with the heat. 
 
 No blaze that he could make, however, could conceal 
 from his own view the cheerful light from the chamber win- 
 dow. There was certainly a good fire within ; and those 
 who sat beside it were probably better companions to each 
 other than Spy was to him. The dog was dull and would 
 not play ; and Roger himself soon felt too tired, or some- 
 thing, to wish to play. He could not conceal from himself 
 that he should much like to be in that chamber from which 
 
ROGER HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 the light shone, even though there was no cherry-brandy 
 there now. 
 
 The stars were but just beginning to drop into the sky, 
 and the waste of waters still looked yellow and bright to the 
 west ; but Roger's first day of having his own way had been 
 quite long enough ; and he spread his rug, and rolled him- 
 self in his blanket for the night. Spy, being invited, drew 
 near, and lay down too. Roger was still over-heated, from 
 having made such an enormous fire ; but he muffled up his 
 head in his blanket, as if he was afraid lest even his dog 
 should see that he was crying. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 More than once during the long night, Roger heard 
 strange sounds; and Spy repeatedly raised his head, and 
 seemed uneasy. Above the constant flow of the stream, 
 there came occasionally a sort of roar, then a rumble and a 
 splash ; and the stream appeared to flow on faster. Once 
 Roger rose, in belief that the house, — the firm, substantial 
 stone house, — was washed down. But it was not so. There 
 was no moon at the time of night when he looked forth; but 
 it was clear starlight; and there stood the dark mass of the 
 building, in the midst of the grey waters. Roger vowed he 
 would not get up from his warm rug again on any false 
 alarm ; and so lay till broad daylight, sometimes quite asleep 
 and sometimes drowsily resolving that he would think no 
 more of uncle Stephen, except in the day-time. 
 
 Soon after sunrise, however, a renewed rumble and splash 
 roused him to open his eyes wide. What he saw made him 
 
 122 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 123 
 
 jump up, and run to the edge of the precipice, to see all he 
 could. The greater part of the roof of the house was gone; 
 and there were cracks in the solid stone walls through which 
 the yellow sunshine found its way. One portion of the wall 
 leaned in; another leaned out towards the water. At first 
 Roger expected to see the whole building crumble down 
 into the stream, and supposed that the inhabitants might be 
 swept quite away. He gazed with the strange feeling that 
 not a creature might be now left alive in that habitation. 
 
 Roger's heart sank within him at the idea of his own soli- 
 tude, if this were indeed the case. He had nothing to fear 
 for his own safety. The Red-hill would not be swept away. 
 He could live as he was for a long time to come ; till some 
 steps should be taken for repairing the damage of the flood ; 
 till some explorers should arrive in a boat, which, he had no 
 doubt, would happen soon. It was not about his own safety 
 that Roger was anxious, but it frightened him to think of 
 being entirely alone in such a place as this, with the bodies 
 of all whom he knew best lying under the waters on every 
 side of him. If he could have Oliver with him to speak to, 
 or even little George, it would make all the difference to him. 
 He really hoped they were left alive. When he began to 
 consider,he perceived that the bridge-rope remained, stretched 
 as tight as ever. The chamber window, and indeed all that 
 wall of the house, looked firm and safe, and such roof as was 
 left was over that part. This was natural enough, as the 
 violence of the flood was much greater on the opposite side 
 of the house than on the garden side. The staircase was safe. 
 
124 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 It was laid open to view very curiously, but it stood upright 
 and steady, and at length, to Roger's great relief, Mildred 
 appeared upon it. She merely ran up to fetch something 
 from the roof, but her step, her run and jump, was, to Roger's 
 mind, different from what it would have been if she had been 
 in great affliction or fear. In his pleasure at this, he snatched 
 his cap from his head, and waved it; but the little girl was 
 very busy, and she did not see him. It was odd, Roger said 
 to himself, that the Linacres were always now thinking of 
 everything but him, when formerly they could never watch 
 him enough. 
 
 After awhile he descended the bank, to fill his boiler with 
 water. It was necessary to do this for some time before 
 drinking, in order that the mud might settle. Even after 
 standing for several hours the day before, the water was far 
 from clear, and it was very far from sweet. This was nothing 
 new to Roger, however, who had been accustomed to drink 
 water like this as often as he had been settled in the carr, 
 though he had occasionally been allowed to mix with it some 
 gin from his uncle's bottle. He was thirsty enough this 
 morning to drink almost anything, but he did think the water 
 in the boiler looked particularly muddy and disagreeable. 
 Spy seemed as thirsty as himself, and as little disposed to 
 drink of the stream as it ran below. He pranced about the 
 boiler, as if watching for an opportunity to wet his tongue, 
 if his master should turn his back for a minute. 
 
 The opportunity soon came ; for Roger saw the bridge- 
 basket put out of the window by Ailwin, after which Oliver 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 125 
 
 got into it. Ailwin handed him something, as he pulled away 
 for the Red-hill. With a skip and a jump Roger ran to the 
 beach to await him. 
 
 A WELCOME VISIT. 
 
 " Pull away ! That 's right ! Glad to see you ! " exclaimed 
 Roger. " Halloo, Spy ! Down, sir ! Pleased to see you, 
 Oliver." 
 
 Oliver was glad to hear these words. He did not know 
 
126 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 but that he might have been met by abuse and violence for 
 having carried home the basket. 
 
 "Would you like some milk?" asked Oliver, as he came 
 near. 
 
 "Ay, that I should," replied Roger. 
 
 "Leave yonder water to your dog, then, and drink this," 
 said Oliver, handing down a small tin can. " You must let 
 me have the can, though. Almost all our kitchen things floated 
 out through the wall, at that breach that you see, during the 
 night. You must give me the can again, if you would like 
 that I should bring you some more milk this afternoon. The 
 poor cow is doing but badly, and we cannot feed her as we 
 should like ; but she has given milk enough for George this 
 morning, with a little to spare for us and you. You seem to 
 like it," he added, laughing to see how Roger smacked his 
 lips over the draught. 
 
 " That I do. It is good stuff, I know," said Roger, as he 
 drained the last drop. 
 
 " Then I will bring you some more in the afternoon, if 
 there is any to spare from poor George's supper.'' 
 
 " That 's a pity. You 've enough to do, I think. Suppose 
 I come over. Eh?" 
 
 " There is something to be said about that," replied 
 Oliver, gravely. " We do not want to keep what we have to 
 ourselves. We have got a chest of meal, this morning." 
 
 "A chest of meal?" 
 
 " Yes ; a large chest, and not wet at all, except an inch 
 deep all round the outside. We caught it just now, as it was 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 127 
 
 floating by ; and we should like you to have some of it, as 
 you have no bread here ; but you know, Roger, you kicked 
 our poor cow when she was too weak to stand ; and you 
 carried away our tinder-box when you knew we had no fire. 
 We don't want to have you with us to do such things ; and 
 so I think I had better bring you some of the meal over 
 here. And yet it is a pity; for the broth that Ailwin is 
 making will be very good." 
 
 " I '11 come over," said Roger. " I am stronger than you, 
 and I can help you to feed the cow, and everything." 
 
 " I can do all that, with Ailwin to help ; and I am sure 
 Mildred had much rather you should stay here, unless you 
 behave differently. And poor little George, too ! he is not 
 well, and we do not like that he should be frightened." 
 
 " I shan't frighten him or anybody, you'll see. You had 
 better let me come ; and Spy and 1 will bring you a lot of 
 game." 
 
 " We don't want any game, at present. We have plenty 
 to eat." 
 
 " You had better let me come and help you. I won't 
 hurt George, or anything. Come, I promise you you shan't 
 repent doing me a good turn." 
 
 " Then you shall come, Roger. But do remember that 
 Mildred is only a little girl; and consider poor Geordie too; 
 he is quite ill. You won't tease him ? Well, here 's the line. 
 Come as soon as you please, after I am landed." 
 
 Oliver had been in the basket, out of reach, during this 
 conversation. He now flung down the basket line, and 
 
128 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 returned. Roger was not long in following, with some of his 
 game, some firewood, and his dog. He left his bedding 
 hidden in the thicket, and the tinder-box in a dry hole in a 
 tree, that he might come back to his island at any time, in 
 case of quarrel with the Linacres. 
 
 Poor little George did indeed look ill. He was lying 
 across Mildred's lap, very fretful, his cheeks burning hot, his 
 lips dry, and his mouth sore. Ailwin had put a charm round 
 his neck the day before, but he did not seem to be the better 
 for it. Busy as she was, she tied on another the moment she 
 heard from Oliver that Roger was coming. When Roger 
 and the basket darkened the window, Ailwin and Mildred 
 called out at once, " Here he is.'' George turned his hot 
 head that way, and repeated " Here he is.'' 
 
 "Yes, here I am; and here's what I have brought,'' said 
 Roger, throwing down two rabbits and a leveret. He took 
 up the leveret presently, and brought it to George, that he 
 might feel how soft the fur was. The child flinched from him 
 at first, but was persuaded at length to stroke the leveret's 
 back, and play with its paws. 
 
 " That boy has some good in him after all," thought Ailwin, 
 " unless this be a trick. It is some trick, I '11 be bound." 
 
 " You are tight and dry enough here," said Roger, glancing 
 round the room. "By the look of the house from the hill, 
 I thought you had been all in ruins." 
 
 The minds of Ailwin and Mildred were full of the events 
 of the night ; and they forgot that it was Roger they were 
 speaking to when they told what their terrors had been. 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 129 
 
 Ailvvin had started up, in the middle of the night, and run 
 to the door ; and, on opening it, had seen the stars shining 
 bright down into the house. The roof of the other side of 
 the house was clean gone. When Mildred looked out from 
 the same place at sunrise, she saw the water spread almost 
 under her feet. The floor of the landing-place, and the 
 ceiling of one of the lower rooms had been broken up, and 
 the planks were floating about. 
 
 "Where are they?" asked Roger, quickly. "To be sure 
 you did not let them float off along with the kitchen things 
 that got away through the wall ? " 
 
 Mildred did not know that any care had been taken of 
 the planks. Roger was off to see, saying that they might be 
 glad of every foot of plank they could lay their hands on. 
 
 Ailwin and Mildred saw no more of either of the boys 
 during the whole morning. They might have looked out to 
 discover what was doing, but that neither of them liked the 
 sight of the bare rafters overhead, or of the watery precipice 
 at their feet. So Ailwin went on making cakes of a curious 
 sort, as she said ; cakes of meal, made up with milk and water, 
 without either yeast or salt. They would not be spoiled by 
 the water; that was all that could be said for them. The 
 water which was filtered through gravel turned out quite good 
 enough to be used in cooking, and even for poor George to 
 drink, so very thirsty as he was. While the fowl simmered 
 in the pot, and the cakes lay toasting on the hob, Ailwin 
 busied herself in making the beds, and then in rubbing, with 
 her strong arm, everything in the room, helping the floor, the 
 
 9 
 
130 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 walls, and the furniture to dry from the wetting of yesterday. 
 From the smell, she said, she should have thought that every- 
 thing in the house was growing mouldy before her face. They 
 were all aware that the bad smell which they had observed 
 yesterday, was growing worse every hour. Roger had been 
 much struck with it the moment he entered the window. 
 
 When the boys at length appeared, to say how hungry 
 they were, they burst in more like two schoolfellows who 
 have been trying a new game, than little lads on whom 
 others were depending for subsistence in the midst of a 
 heavy calamity. They had made a raft — a real stout, broad 
 raft, which would be of more use to them (now the 
 currents were slackening) than anything they had attempted 
 yet. Oliver told that among the many things which the 
 current brought from poor neighbour Gool's, was a lot of 
 harness from his stables. Roger had seen at once what 
 strong fastenings this harness would make for their raft. 
 They had then crossed to their own stable, and found their 
 own suit of harness hanging safe against the wall which 
 remained. They had tied their planks to three stout beams, 
 which they had pulled out from the ruined part of their 
 house wall. It had been pretty hard work ; but the raft was 
 secure, and well fastened, moreover, to a door-post, with a 
 long line ; so that they might row about without having 
 always to be looking that they were not carried abroad into 
 the carr. Oliver really thought it was almost as good as 
 having a boat. Roger protested that it was better, because 
 it would hold more goods ; but the brother and sister could 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 13' 
 
 DINNER-TIME. 
 
 not think that the raft was the best of the two, when they 
 remembered that the boat would carry them, perhaps, to 
 their mother's arms. Oliver knew what Mildred was think- 
 ing of when he said, 
 
 " We must not dream of getting away on our raft, dear. 
 It would upset in the currents twenty times between this 
 place and the hills.'' 
 
 " Well, what of that ? " said Roger. " Who wants to get 
 to the hills ? We have got all we want for a good while here. 
 
 9— 2 
 
133 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 We can take our pleasure, and live as free as wild ducks in 
 a pond that nobody comes near." 
 
 Roger was quite in spirits and good humour. It may 
 seem strange that a boy who was so lazy the day before, as 
 to wish that hares ran about ready roasted, should work so 
 hard this day at so severe a job as making a raft. But it 
 was natural enough. There is nothing interesting to a dull 
 and discontented person, all alone, in preparing a meal for 
 his own self to eat; but there is something animating in 
 planning a clever job, which can be set about immediately 
 — a ready and willing companion being at hand to help and 
 to talk with. There was also something immediate to be 
 gained by finishing this raft. One thing or another was 
 floating by every quarter of an hour, which it would be worth 
 while to seize and bring home. As Roger saw, now a hay- 
 cock, and now a man's hat, float by, he worked harder and 
 harder, that as few treasures as possible might be thus lost. 
 Oliver felt much in the same way, particularly from his want 
 of a hat or cap. Ailwin had made him tie a handkerchief 
 round his head; but it heated him, without saving him much 
 from the scorching of the sun on his head, and the glare 
 from the waters to his eyes. 
 
 Ailwin had looked for some compliments to her cookery 
 from the hungry boys ; but they forgot, in their eagerness 
 about their raft, that it was a treat in these days to have 
 meal cakes ; and they ate and talked, without thinking much 
 of what it was that they were putting into their mouths. 
 When they went off agair> to see what they could find, it is 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 133 
 
 not to be told how Mildred would have liked to go with 
 them. She did not want her dinner, to which Ailwin said 
 they two would now sit down comfortably. She did not now 
 mind the precipice and the broken walls, and the staring 
 rafters. She longed to stand somewhere, and see the boys 
 take prizes in the stream. She had held poor George all the 
 morning; for he would not let her put him on the bed. Her 
 back ached, her arms were stiff, and her very heart was sick 
 with his crying. He had been fretting or wailing ever since 
 daylight ; and Mildred felt as if she could not bear it one 
 minute longer. Just then she heard a laugh from the boys 
 outside, and Ailwin began to sing, as she always did when 
 putting away the pots and pans. Nobody seemed to care ; 
 nobody seemed to think of her ; and Mildred remembered 
 how different it would have been if her mother had been 
 there. Her mother would have been thinking about poor 
 George all the morning : but her mother would have thought 
 of her too; would have remembered that she must be tired; 
 and have cheered her with talk, or with saying something 
 hopeful about the poor baby. 
 
 When Ailwin stopped her loud singing for a moment, while 
 considering in which corner she should set down her stew-pan, 
 she heard a gentle sob. Looking round, she saw Mildred's 
 face covered with tears. 
 
 " What 's the matter now, dear ?" said she. " Is the baby 
 worse ? No, he don't seem worse to me." 
 
 " I don't know, I 'm sure. But, Ailwin, I am so tired, I 
 don't know what to do ; and I cannot bear to hear him cry 
 
134 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 so. He has been crying in this way all to-day ; and it is the 
 longest day I ever knew." 
 
 " Well, I 'm sure I wish we could think of anything that 
 would quiet him. If we had only his go-cart, now, or his 
 wooden lamb, with the white wool upon it, that he is so fond 
 of. ... . But they are under water, below." 
 
 " But if you could only take him for a little while, Ailwin, 
 I should be so glad. I would wash up all your dishes for 
 you." 
 
 " Take him. Oh, that 's what you are at ? To be sure I 
 will ; and I might have thought of that before, only I had 
 my pans and things to put away. I '11 wash my hands now 
 directly, and take him ; only there is not much use in wash- 
 ing one's hands ; this foul, damp smell seems to stick to 
 everything one touches. It is that boy's doing, depend upon 
 it. He is at the bottom of all mischief. Ay, Mildred, you 
 need not object to what I say. After what I saw of him 
 yesterday morning, with all that plague of animals about him 
 on the stairs, you will never persuade me that he has not some 
 league with bad creatures a good way off. I don't half like 
 Oliver's being with him on the raft in the stream there. That 
 raft was wonderfully ready made for two slips of boys." 
 
 "They had the planks ready to their hands," said Mildred, 
 trembling, " and leather harness and ropes to tie it with. I 
 think they might do it as they said. What harm do you sup- 
 pose will happen, Ailwin? I am sure Oliver would do nothing 
 wrong about making the raft, or anything else. Oh, dear! I 
 wish George would not cry so." 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 135 
 
 " Here, give him to me," said Ailwin, who had now washed 
 her hands and taken off her cooking apron. "There, go you, 
 and finish the dishes, and then to play, there 's a dear. And 
 don't think about George, or about Roger and the raft, or any- 
 thing that will vex you, there 's a dear." 
 
 Ailwin gave Mildred a smacking kiss, as she received little 
 George from her ; and, though Mildred could not, as she was 
 bid, put away all vexing thoughts, she was cheered by Ailwin's 
 good-will. 
 
 She had soon done washing the few plates they had used, 
 though she did the washing with the greatest care, because it 
 was her mother's best china, brought from Holland, and kept 
 in the upstairs cupboard,— ready, as it now seemed, to serve 
 the present party, who must otherwise have gone without 
 plates and cups, their common sets being all under water, — 
 broken to pieces, no doubt, by this time. George was already 
 quieter than he had been all day; so that Mildred felt the 
 less scruple about going out to amuse herself, — or rather, to 
 watch her brother; for she hardly dared to take any pleasure 
 in the raft, after what Ailwin had said ; . though she kept 
 repeating to herself that it was all nonsense, such as Ailwin 
 often talked; such as Mrs. Linacre said her children must 
 neither believe nor laugh at. 
 
 Mildred went at once to the top of the staircase, which 
 stood up firm, though the building had fallen away on almost 
 every side of it. It was rather a giddy affair at first, sitting 
 on the top stair of a spiral staircase, of which part of the walls 
 were gone, while the bare rafters of the roof let the water be 
 
136 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 seen through them. Mildred soon grew accustomed to her 
 place, however, and fixed her eyes on the raft with which the 
 boys were plying in the stream. She supposed they had 
 caught a hay-cock ; for the cow was eating, very industriously 
 — no longer on the dung-hill, but on a slip of ground which 
 had been left dry between it and the stable. The cow had 
 company to share her good cheer : whether invited or un- 
 invited, there was no saying. A strange pony was there ; and 
 a sheep, and a well-grown calf. These animals all pressed 
 upon one another on the narrow space of ground, thrusting 
 their heads over or under one another's necks, to -snatch 
 the hay. 
 
 " How hungry they are ! " thought Mildred, " and how they 
 tease one another ! " She then remembered having read of 
 men starving in a boat at sea, who became as selfish as these 
 animals in snatching from one another their last remaining 
 morsels of food. She hoped that she and Oliver should not 
 be starved, at last, in the middle of this flood ; but if they 
 were, she did not believe that Oliver and she could ever 
 snatch food from each other, or help themselves before 
 Geordie, whatever Roger might do, or even Ailwin. Ailwin 
 was very kind and good-tempered ; but then she was apt to 
 be so very hungry ! However, there was no occasion to think 
 of want of food yet. The meal which had being wetted, 
 round the sides and under the lid of the chest, served well 
 to feed the fowls ; and they seemed to find something worth 
 picking up in the mud and slime that the waters had left 
 behind as they sank. The poor sow had farrowed too. She 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 137 
 
 and her little pigs were found almost dead with hunger and 
 wet; but the meal chest had come just in time to save them. 
 Ailwin had said it was worth while to spare them some of 
 the meal ; for the little pigs, if their mother was well fed, 
 would give them many a good dinner. There was no occasion 
 to fear want of food at present. 
 
 The boys were on their raft in the middle of the stream, 
 working away with their broad paddles, evidently wishing to 
 catch something which was floating down. Mildred could 
 see only a small tree bobbing about, sometimes showing its 
 roots above water, and sometimes its leafy branches. What 
 could they want with a young tree, so well off as they were for 
 drier firewood than it would make ? They were determined 
 to have it, it was clear ; for Roger threw down his paddle as 
 they neared the tree, caught up a long rope, and gave it a 
 cast towards the branching top. As the rope went through 
 the air, Mildred saw that it had a noose at the end. The 
 noose caught ; — the tree gave a topple in the water, when it 
 found itself stopped in its course with a jerk ; and the boys 
 set up a shout as they pulled for the house, hauling in their 
 prize after them. 
 
 Mildred ran down the stairs as far as she dared,— almost 
 to the very brink of the water. There she was near enough 
 to see and hear what was doing. The tree was an apple- 
 tree; and though the ripest, apples were gone, a good many 
 were left, which would be a treat when cooked. The boys 
 saw her watching them, and Roger said it was not fair that 
 she should stand idle while they were working like horses ; 
 
138 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 why should not she gather the apples before they were all 
 knocked off, instead of keeping other people out of the stream 
 to do such girls' work ? Oliver said she had been as useful as 
 anybody all day ; and she should do as she liked now. He 
 called out to Mildred, and asked her whether she should like 
 to gather the apples off the tree, while they went to see what 
 ;lse they could find. Mildred replied that she should like it 
 very much, if they could bring in the tree to the place where 
 she was. Ailwin would find something for her to put the 
 apples in. 
 
 Neither the raft nor the tree, however, could be got through 
 the breach in the wall. Oliver fetched the tub, which 
 had been discarded since the raft had been thought of. 
 He rowed himself to the staircase in this tub, and asked 
 Mildred if she was afraid just to cross those few yards to the 
 wall. He would find her a nice seat on the wall, where she 
 could sit plucking the apples, and seeing all they did on the 
 raft. He would be sure to come for her, as soon as she 
 should make a signal for him. Meantime, the tub would 
 hold the apples. 
 
 Mildred had a great fancy for sharing the boys' adventures , 
 and though the tub looked a small, unsteady boat, she ven- 
 tured to slide down into it, and sit in it, while her brother 
 rowed her over to the broken wall. She was so silent that 
 Oliver thought she was frightened ; but she was considering 
 whether or not to tell him of Ailwin's fears of his being on 
 the raft with Roger. Before she had decided, they had come 
 within hearing of Roger, and it was too late. 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 139 
 
 After finding a steady broad stone in the wall for her to 
 sit on, Oliver chose to stay a little while, to cut and break off 
 from the trunk the branches that had the most fruit on them. 
 This would make Mildred's work much easier. Oliver also 
 chose, in spite of all Roger could say, to leave her one of 
 their paddles. He considered (though he did not say it) 
 that some accident might possibly happen to the raft, to 
 prevent their returning for her; and he declared that Mildred 
 should have an oar to row herself in with, if she should have 
 a mind to join Ailwin, at any moment, instead of waiting 
 where she was. So having moored the tub inside the house 
 wall, and the apple-tree outside, and established Mildred on 
 a good seat between, the boys pushed off again. 
 
 Mildred found that she had undertaken a wet and dirty 
 task. The branches of the apple-tree were dripping, and 
 the fruit covered with slime; but these are things which 
 must not be minded in times of flood. So she went on, 
 often looking away, however, to wonder what things were 
 which were swept past her, and to watch the proceedings of 
 the boys. After a while, she became so bold as to consider 
 what a curious thing it would be if she, without any raft, 
 should pick up some article as valuable as any that had 
 swam the stream. This thought was put into her head by 
 seeing something occasionally flap out upon the surface of 
 the muddy water, as if it were spread out below. It looked 
 to her like the tail of a coat, or the skirt of a petticoat. She 
 was just about to fish it up with her paddle, when it occurred 
 to her that it might be the clothing of a drowned person, 
 
140 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 She shrank back at the thought, and in the first terror of 
 having a dead body so near her, called Oliver's name. He 
 did not hear, and she would not repeat the call when she 
 saw how busy he was. She tried not to think of this piece 
 of cloth ; but it came up perpetually before her eyes, flap, 
 flapping, till she felt that it would be best to satisfy herself 
 at once as to what it was. 
 
 She poked her paddle underneath the flap, and found that 
 it was caught and held down by something heavy. She 
 tugged hard at it, and raised some more blue cloth. She 
 did not believe there was a body now ; and she laid hold of 
 the cloth and drew it in. It was heavy in itself, and made 
 more so by the wet, so that the little girl had to set her foot 
 against a stone in the wall, and employ all her strength, be- 
 fore she could land the cloth, yard after yard, upon the wall. 
 It was a piece of homespun, probably laid out on the grass 
 of some field in the Levels after dyeing, and so carried away. 
 When Mildred had pulled in a vast quantity, there was some 
 lesistance — the rest would not come. Perhaps something 
 heavy had lodged upon it, and kept it down. Again she 
 used her paddle, setting her feet against one stone, and 
 pressing her back against another, to give her more power. 
 In the midst of the effort, the stone behind her gave way. 
 It was her paddle now, resting against some support under 
 water, which saved her from popping into the water with the 
 great stone. As it was, she swayed upon her seat, and was 
 very nearly gone, while the heavy stone slid in, and raised a 
 splash which wetted her from head to foot, and left her 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 '4i 
 
 trembling in every limb. She had fancied once or twice 
 before that the wall shook under her. She was now persuaded 
 that it was all shaking, and would soon be carried quite 
 away. She screamed out to Oliver to come and save her. 
 She must have called very loud, for Ailwin, with George \v 
 her arms, was out on the staircase in a moment. 
 
 KOGER DEFEATED. 
 
 There was a scuffle on the raft. It seemed as if Oliver 
 was paddling with one hand, and keeping off Roger with the 
 other. It was terrible to see them — it was so like fighting 
 in a most dangerous place. There was a splash. Mildred's 
 eyes grew dim in a moment, and she could see nothing ; but 
 she heard Ailwin's voice — very joyful — calling out to Oliver 
 
 "Well done, Oliver ! Well rid of hirn ! Pull away from 
 him, Oliver ! He is full able to take care of himself, depend 
 
142 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 upon it. He was never made to be drowned. Come and 
 help Mildred, there's a dear ! Never mind Roger ! " 
 
 Mildred soon saw the raft approaching her, with Oliver 
 alone upon it. 
 
 " Oh, Oliver, where is he ? What have you done ? " cried 
 Mildred, as her brother arrived at the wall. 
 
 Oliver was very hot, and his lips quivered as he answered, 
 
 " I don't know what I have done. I could not help it. 
 He wanted me not to come to you when you screamed. He 
 wanted to catch the chest instead. I tripped him up— off 
 into the water. He can swim. But there is the tub — give 
 me hold of the rope — quick ! I will send it out into ths 
 stream. He may meet it." 
 
 Down went all the gathered apples into the water, within 
 the wall, and off went the tub outside. Oliver fastened the 
 line round a heavy stone in the wall. 
 
 " I wish I had never screamed ! " exclaimed Mildred, 
 
 " I am sure I wish so too. You must leave off screaming 
 so, Mildred. I am sure I thought you were in the water, in 
 the middle of all that splash, or I should not have been in 
 such a hurry. If Roger should be drowned, it will be all 
 your doing, for screaming so." 
 
 Mildred did not scream now ; but she cried very bitterly. 
 It was soon seen, however, that Roger was safe. He was 
 swimming in the still water on the opposite side, and pre- 
 sently landed beside the pony and cow. He left off wringing 
 the wet out of his hair and clothes, to shake both his fists at 
 Oliver in a threatening way. 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 143 
 
 "Oh, look at him! He will kill you!" cried Mild^d. 
 " I never will scream again." 
 
 "Never mind, as long as he is safe," said Oliver. "I 
 don't care for his shaking his fists. It was my business to 
 save you, before caring about him, or all the chests in the 
 Levels. Never mind now, dear. You won't scream again 
 without occasion, I know. What made you do so? You 
 can't think what a shriek it was. It went through my 
 head." 
 
 " Part of the wall fell ; and the whole of it shakes so, I 
 am sure it will all be down presently. I wish we were at 
 home. But what shall we ever do about Roger ? He will 
 kill you, if you go near him ; and he can't stay there." 
 
 " Leave Roger to me," said Oliver, feeling secretly some 
 of his sister's fear of the consequences of what had just 
 passed. He stepped on the wall, and was convinced that it 
 was shaking, — almost rocking. He declared that it was quite 
 unsafe, and that he must look to the remaining walls before 
 they slept another night in the building. Mildred must get 
 upon the raft immediately. What was that heap of blue 
 cloth ? 
 
 Mildred explained, and the cloth was declared too valuable 
 to be left behind. Two pairs of hands availed to pull up 
 the end which stuck under water, and then the children found 
 themselves in possession of a whole piece of homespun. 
 
 " May we use it ? We did not make it or buy it," said 
 Mildred. 
 
 " I thought of that too," replied her brother. " We will see 
 
144 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 about that. It is our business to save it, at any rate, so help 
 me with it. How heavy it is with the water! " 
 
 They pulled a dozen apples, and rowed away home with 
 their prize. 
 
 Ailwin said as she met them on the stairs that she was glad 
 enough to see them home again, and more especially without 
 Roger. 
 
 " Roger must be fetched, however," said Oliver, "and the 
 sooner the better." 
 
 " Oh, not yet," pleaded Mildred. " He is so angry." 
 
 " That is the very thing," said Oliver. " I want to show 
 him that I tripped him over not in anger, but because I could 
 not help it. He will never believe but that it was malice from 
 beginning to end if I do not go for him directly." 
 
 " But he will thrash you. You know he can. He is ever 
 so much stronger than you, and he is in such a passion I do 
 not know what he may not do." 
 
 " What can I do?" said Oliver. " I can't leave him there 
 standing dripping wet with the cow and the pony." 
 
 " Would it be of any use if I were to go with you, and say 
 it was all my fault?" asked Mildred, trembling. 
 
 " No, no ; you must not go." 
 
 " I would go if there was no water between, and if Mildred 
 would take care of the baby," said Ailwin. 
 
 " Oh, do, do go. You are so strong," said both the children, 
 
 " Why, you see, I can't abide going on the water any way, 
 and never could, and most of all without so much as a boat." 
 
 " But I will row you as carefully," said Oliver, " as safely as 
 
ROGER NOT BIS OWN MASTER. 145 
 
 in any boat. You see how often we have crossed, and how 
 easy it is. You cannot think what care I will take of you if 
 you will go.'' 
 
 " Then there 's the coming back," objected Ailwin. " If I 
 am on board the same raft with Roger we shall all go to the 
 bottom, that 's certain." 
 
 " How often have I been to the bottom ? And yet I have 
 been on the raft with Roger ever since it was made." 
 
 "Well, and think how near Mildred was going to the bottom 
 only just now. I declare I thought we had seen the last of 
 her." 
 
 " Roger had nothing to do with that, you know very well. 
 But I will tell you how we can manage. You can carry your 
 pail over, and — never mind its being so early — you can be 
 milking the cow while I bring Roger over here; and I can 
 come back for you. That will do, won't it ? Come, fetch 
 your pail. Depend upon it that is the best plan." 
 
 Mildred remembered with great fear that by this plan Roger 
 would be left with her and George while Oliver went to fetch 
 Ailwin home, but she did not say a word, feeling that she who 
 had caused the mischief ought not to object to Oliver's plan 
 for getting out of the scrape. She need not have feared that 
 Oliver would neglect her feelings. Just before he put off with 
 Ailwin and her milk-pail he said to his sister, 
 
 "I shall try to set Roger down somewhere so that he cannot 
 plague you and George, but you had better bolt yourself into 
 the room upstairs when you see us coming. And on no 
 account open the door again till I bid you." 
 
146 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Mildred promised, and then sat down with George asleep 
 on her lap, to watch the event. She saw Ailwin make some 
 odd gestures as she stood on the raft, balancing herself as if 
 she thought the boards would gape under her feet. Oliver 
 paddled diligently, looking behind him oftener and oftener, 
 as he drew near the landing-place, as if to learn what Roger 
 meant to do when they came within his reach. 
 
 The moment the boys were within arm's length of each 
 other, Roger sprang furiously upon Oliver, and would have 
 thrown him down in an instant, if Oliver had not expected 
 this, and been upon his guard. Oliver managed to jump 
 ashore ; and there the boys fought fiercely. There could 
 be no doubt from the beginning which would be beaten, — 
 Roger was so much the taller and stronger of the two, and 
 so much the less peaceable in all his habits than Oliver; but 
 yet Oliver made good fight for some time, before he was 
 knocked down completely. Roger was just about to give his 
 fallen enemy a kick in the stomach, when Ailwin seized him, 
 and said she was not going to see her young master killed 
 before her face, by boy or devil, whichever Roger might be. 
 She tripped him up ; and before Oliver had risen, Roger lay 
 sprawling, with Ailwin kneeling upon him to keep him down. 
 Roger shouted out that they were two to one, — cowards, to 
 fight him two to one ! 
 
 " I am as sorry for that as you can be," said Oliver, dash- 
 ing away the blood which streamed from his nose. " I wish 
 I were as old and as tall as you ; but I am not. And this 
 is no fighting for play, when it would not signify if I was 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 
 
 147 
 
 beaten every day for a week. Here are Mildred and the baby ; 
 I have to take care of them till we know what has become 
 of my father and mother; and if you try to prevent me, I 
 
 AILWIN TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 will get Ailwin, or anybody or thing I can, to help me, 
 sooner than they shall be hurt. If father and mother ever 
 come back to take care of Mildred, I will fight you every 
 day till I beat you, and let nobody interfere ; but till then, I 
 
 10 — 2 
 
148 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 will go to Mildred as often as she calls, if you drown for it, 
 as I showed you this morning." 
 
 Roger answered only by fresh kicks and struggles. Ailwin 
 said aloud that she saw nothing for it but leaving him on this 
 spit of land, to starve on the dung-hill. There would be no 
 taking him over to the house in this temper. Roger vowed 
 he would drown all the little pigs, and hough the cow. He 
 had done .such a thing before ; and he would do it again ; 
 so that they should not have a drop more milk for 
 George. 
 
 "That will never do," said Oliver. "Ailwin, do you 
 think we could get him over to the Red-hill? He would 
 have plenty to eat there, and might do as he pleased, 
 and be out of our way and the cow's, I could carry him 
 his dog.'' 
 
 Ailwin asked Oliver to bring her the cord from off the 
 raft, and they two could tie up the boy from doing mis- 
 chief. 
 
 Oliver brought the cord, but he could not bear to think of 
 using it so. 
 
 " Come, now, Roger," said he, "you picked this quarrel ; 
 and you may get out of it in a moment. We don't want to 
 quarrel at such a time as this. Never mind what has hap- 
 pened. Only say you won't meddle between me and the 
 others while the flood lasts, and you shall help me to row 
 home, and I will thank you. After all, we can fight it out 
 some other day if you like." 
 
 More kicks from Roger. No other answer. So Oliver and 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. . 149 
 
 Ailwin tied his arms and legs with the cord ; and then Ailwin 
 proceeded to milk the cow, and Oliver, after washing his face, 
 to give the pony some more hay, and see how the little pigs 
 went on. The animals were all drooping, and especially the 
 cow. Oliver wished to have given the pigs some of her milk, 
 as the poor sow seemed weak and ill ; but the cow gave so 
 very little milk this afternoon, that there was none to spare. 
 Her legs trembled as she stood to be milked ; and she lay 
 down again, as soon as Ailwin had done. 
 
 "The poor thing ain't long for this world," said Ailwin. 
 " Depend upon it that boy has bewitched her. I don't be- 
 lieve she trembles in that way when he is on the other side 
 of the water.'' 
 
 "You will see that in the morning,'' said Oliver. "Shall 
 we take him on the raft now? I don't like to carry him tied 
 so, for fear he should throw himself about, and roll over into 
 the water. He would certainly be drowned. v 
 
 " Leave that to him, Oliver, and take my word for it, that 
 boy was never made to be drowned." 
 
 "You thought the same about Stephen, you know; and 
 he is drowned, I am afraid." 
 
 " Neither you nor I know that. I will believe it when I 
 see it," said Ailwin, with a wise look. 
 
 It was now Roger's mood to lie like one dead. He did 
 not move a muscle when he was lifted and laid on the raft. 
 Ailwin was so delighted to see the boy she was so afraid of 
 thus humbled, that she could not help giving his face a splash 
 and rub with the muddy water of the stream as he lay. 
 
i$o THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "Ailwin, for shame ! " cried Oliver. "I will fight you next 
 if you do so. You know you durst not, if his hands were 
 free." 
 
 " To be sure, Oliver, that is the very reason. One must 
 take one's revenge while one can. However, I won't notice 
 him any more till you do." 
 
 "Cannot you set down your pail, and help me to row?" 
 asked Oliver. 
 
 He was quite tired. The raft was heavy now; his nose had 
 not left off bleeding, and his head ached sadly. Three pulls 
 from Ailwin brought them nearer home than all Oliver's 
 previous efforts. He observed that they must get round the 
 house, if possible, and into the stream which ran through the 
 garden, so as to land Roger on the Red-hill. 
 
 There was not much difficulty in getting round, as every- 
 thing like a fence had long been swept away. As they passed 
 near the entrance-door to the garden, they observed that the 
 waters were still sinking. They stood now only half-way 
 up the door-posts. Oliver declared that when he was 
 a little less tired, he would go through the lower rooms 
 in a tub, and see whether he could pick up anything 
 useful. He feared, however, that almost everything must 
 have been swept off through the windows in the water 
 falls that Mildred had thought so pretty the first day of 
 the flood. 
 
 "There is a chest ! " exclaimed Oliver, pointing to a little 
 creek in which a stout chest had stuck. " Roger, I do believe 
 it is the very chest that — that we began our quarrel about. 
 
ROGER NOT HIS OWN MASTER. 151 
 
 Come, now, is not this a sign that we ought to make it 
 up?" 
 
 Roger would not appear to hear ; so his companions made 
 short work of it. They pulled in for the shore of the Red- 
 hill, and laid Roger on the slimy bank — for they saw no 
 occasion to carry one so heavy and so sulky up to the nice 
 bed of grass which was spread at the top of the red precipice 
 that the waters had cut. Oliver knew that there was a knife 
 in Roger's pocket. He took it out, cut the cord which tied 
 his wrists, and threw the knife to a little distance, where 
 Roger could easily reach it, in order to free his legs ; but not 
 in time to overtake them before they should have put off 
 again. 
 
 Roger made one catch at Oliver's leg, but missing it, lay 
 again as if dead ; and Ailwin believed he had not yet stirred 
 when the raft rounded the house again, with the great chest 
 in tow. 
 
 Mildred was delighted to see them back, and especially 
 without Roger. She thought Oliver's face looked very shock- 
 ing ; but Oliver would not say a word about this, or anything 
 else, till he had found Roger's dog, and gone over in the 
 basket, to set him ashore with his master. 
 
 " There ! " said he, as he stepped in at the window when 
 this was accomplished, " we have done their business. There 
 they are, in their desert island, as they were before. Now 
 we need not think any more about them, but attend to our 
 own affairs." 
 
 " Your face, Oliver ! Pray do " 
 
152 
 
 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " Never mind my face, dear, if it does not frighten poor 
 Geordie. How is poor Geordie ? " 
 
 " I do not think he is any better. I never saw him so 
 fretful, and so hot and ill. And be cries so dreadfully ! " 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NEW QUARTERS. 
 
 Ailwin presently made George's supper, with milk, a little 
 thickened with meal. They were all about the child, watch- 
 ing how he would take it, when a loud crack was heard. 
 
 " What is that ? " cried Oliver. 
 
 " It is a crack," said Ailwin, " in the wall or somewhere. 
 I heard just such a one while Mildred was gone out to play, 
 after dinner." 
 
 "And there was another while you were away," said 
 Mildred. " Some plaster fell that time — look here ! in this 
 corner. — What is the matter, Oliver? What makes you look 
 so frightened ? What does it mean ? " 
 
 " It means, I am afraid, that more of the house is coming 
 down. Look at this great zigzag crack in the wall ! — and 
 how loose the plaster hangs in that part of the ceiling ! I 
 really think — I am quite sure — we ought not to stay here any 
 longer." 
 
 *53 
 
154 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " But where can we go ? What shall we do ? " 
 
 " We must think about that, and lose no time. I think 
 this room will fall very soon." 
 
 Mildred could not help crying, and saying that they could 
 not settle themselves and rest at all. She never saw any- 
 thing like it. They were all so tired they did not know what 
 to do ; and now they should have to work as hard as ever. 
 She never saw anything like it. 
 
 " No, dear, never," said her brother ; " and thousands of 
 people, far older than you, never saw anything like this flood. 
 But, you know, Mildred, we must not die, if we can help it." 
 
 This reminded Mildred who it was that set them these 
 heavy tasks — that bade them thus labour to preserve the 
 lives He gave. She was silent. Oliver went on— 
 
 " If ever we meet father and mother again, we shall not 
 mind our having been ever so much tired now. We shall 
 like telling them all our plans and doings, if it should please 
 God that we should ever sit with them by the fireside." 
 
 " Or whenever we meet them in heaven, if they should not 
 be alive now," said Mildred. 
 
 " Yes, dear ; but we will talk over all that when we get to 
 the Red-hill. We must not talk any more now, but set to 
 work. However, I really think, Mildred, that father and 
 mother are still alive somewhere. I feel as if they were." 
 
 "But the Red-hill,' 'said Mildred, "what do you mean 
 about the Red-hill ? We are not going there, where Roger 
 is, are we ? " 
 
 " We must, dear. There is no other place. Roger is very 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 
 
 155 
 
 unkind, but floods and falling houses are unkinder still. 
 Come, Ailwin, help me with the raft. We must carry away 
 what we can before dark. There will be no house standing 
 to-morrow morning, I am afraid." 
 
 THE WALLS GIVING WAY. 
 
 "Sleep on the ground !" exclaimed Ailwin. "Without a 
 roof to cover us ! My poor grandfather little thought I 
 should ever come to that." 
 
 " If you will move the beds, you need not sleep on the 
 bare ground," said Oliver. " Now, Ailwin, don't you begin 
 to cry. Pray don't. You are a grown-up woman, and Mildred 
 and I are only children. You ought to take care of us, in- 
 stead of beginning to cry." 
 
156 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "That is pretty true," said Ailwin; "but I little thought 
 ever to sleep without a roof over my head." 
 
 " Come, come, there are the trees," said Oliver. " They 
 are something of a roof, while the leaves are on." 
 
 "And there is all that cloth," said Mildred, "that im- 
 mensely long piece of cloth. Would not that make a tent 
 somehow ? " 
 
 " Capital ! " cried Oliver. " How well we shall be off with 
 a cloth tent ! It seems as if that cloth was sent on purpose. 
 It is so spoiled already, that we can hardly do it any harm ; 
 and I am sure the person that wove it would be very glad 
 that it should cover our heads to-night. I shall carry it and 
 you across before anything else — this very minute. I will 
 run down and bring the raft round to the door below. The 
 water is low enough now for you to get out that way. Oh, 
 dear ! I wish I was not so tired ! I can hardly move. But 
 I must forget all that ; for it will not do to stay here." 
 
 While he was gone, Mildred asked Ailwin whether she was 
 very tired. 
 
 " Pretty much, but not so bad as he," replied Ailwin. 
 
 " Then do not you think you and I could fetch off a good 
 many things, while he watches Geordie on the grass? If 
 you thought you could row the raft, I am sure I could 
 carry a great many things down stairs, and land them on the 
 hill." 
 
 Ailwin had no doubt she could row, in such a narrow and 
 gentle stream as now ran through the garden. 
 
 She made the trial first when Oliver was on board, and 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 157 
 
 several other times with Mildred, succeeding always very 
 well. Oliver was extremely glad of this, for the bridge-basket 
 had been used so much, and sometimes for such heavy 
 weights, that it was wearing out, and might break down at 
 any moment. The bridge-rope, too, being the stoutest cord 
 they had, was very useful for tying the raft to the trunk of 
 the beech, so that it could not be carried away. When once 
 this rope was well fastened, Oliver was content to rest him- 
 self on the grass beside Geordie, and let the strong Ail win 
 and little Mildred work as they wished. It surprised him, 
 well as he knew Ailwin, to see the loads she could carry, 
 bringing a good-sized mattress up the bank as easily as he 
 could have carried a pillow. 
 
 She wrung the wet out of the long piece of homespun, and 
 spread it out in the sun, to dry as much as it could before 
 dark, and seemed to think no more of it than Mildred did 
 of washing her doll's petticoat. 
 
 Mildred took charge of the lighter articles that required 
 care— her mother's china, for one thing, for it was found that 
 nothing made of earthenware remained unbroken in the 
 lower rooms. There were some pewter plates, which were 
 now lodged under the beech, together with pots and pans, 
 knives and forks, and horn spoons. There was no table 
 light enough to be moved, but a small one of deal, which 
 Ailwin dragged out from under water, with all its legs broken; 
 but enough of it remained entire to make it preferable to the 
 bare ground for preparing their food on, when once it should 
 be dry. There was a stool apiece— not forgetting one for 
 
15S THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Roger; and Mildred took care that Geordie should have his 
 own little chair. Not even Ailvvin could carry a chest of 
 drawers ; but she carried down the separate drawers, with the 
 clothes of the family in them. 
 
 No one of the household had ever seen a carpet; but 
 there was matting on some of the floors. Aihvin pulled up 
 pieces of this, to be some protection against the damp and 
 insects of the ground. 
 
 " It is as wet as water now," said she ; " but we must not 
 quarrel with anything to-day on that account ; and matting 
 will dry on the hill better than at home. If it turns out 
 rotten, we must try and spare a piece of the cloth from over- 
 head to lay underfoot; but George will feel it more like 
 home, if he has a bit of matting to trip his little foot against." 
 
 So downstairs went a great bundle of wet matting. 
 
 " Will not that do for to-night ? " asked Oliver, languidly, 
 as he saw Aihvin preparing to put off again, when the sun 
 was just touching the western hills. "You know we have 
 to put up the tent, and get something to eat before we can 
 go to sleep; and it has been such a long, long day.'' 
 
 "As you please," said Aihvin ; "but you said the house 
 would be down in the night; and there are many things yet 
 that we should be sorry to have to do without." 
 
 " Never mind them — let them go ; I am sure we all want 
 to be asleep more than anything else." 
 
 " Sleep, indeed ! Do you suppose I shall sleep with that 
 boy hid among the trees ? Not I, you may rely upon it 
 Those may that can, and I will watch." 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 
 
 159 
 
 No one had yet mentioned Roger, though all felt that his 
 presence was a terrible drawback to the comfort of their 
 establishment on the hill, which might otherwise be, in fine 
 
 CROSSING OVER TO THE RED-HILL. 
 
 weather, a tolerably pleasant one. It made Oliver indignant 
 to think that a stout lad, whom they had wished to make 
 welcome to all they had, in their common adversity, should 
 be skulking in the wood as an enemy, instead of helping them 
 
160 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 in their labours, under circumstances in which all should be 
 friends. This thought made Oliver so angry that he did 
 not choose to speak of Roger. When Ailwin offered to seek 
 him out, and do her best to tie his limbs again, and carry 
 him away to any place the children chose, Oliver begged her 
 to say no more about it, and observed that they had better 
 forget Roger altogether, if they could, unless he should come 
 to make peace. 
 
 There was one, however, who could not for a moment 
 forget who was the cause of the late quarrel. Mildred was 
 very unhappy at the thought of the mischief she had done 
 by her shriek. Not all her hard toil of this evening could 
 console her. When the cloth had been spread over the lower 
 branches of a. great ash, so as to shelter the party, in a care- 
 less way, for this one night (when there was no time to make 
 a proper tent) ; and, while Ailwin was heating something for 
 supper, and Oliver dozing with George on one of the beds, 
 Mildred stole away to consider whether there was anything 
 that she could do to cure Roger's anger. It did her good, at 
 least, to sit down and think about it. She sat down under a 
 tree, above where the bee-shed had stood. The moon had just 
 risen, and was very bright, being near the full. The clouds 
 seemed to have come down out of the sky, to rest upon the 
 earth ; for white vapours, looking as soft as wreaths of snow, 
 were hovering over the wide waste of waters. Some of these 
 were gently floating or curling, while others brooded still, 
 like large white birds over their hidden nests. It seemed 
 to Mildred's eye, however, as if a clear path had been cut 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 161 
 
 through these mists from the Red-hill to the moon on the 
 horizon, and as if this path had been strewed with quivering 
 moonbeams. She forgot, while gazing, that she was looking 
 out upon the carr — upon muddy waters which covered the 
 ruins of many houses, and in which were hidden the bodies 
 of drowned animals, and perhaps of some people. She 
 looked upon the train of trembling light, and felt not only 
 how beautiful it was, but that He whose hand kindled that 
 mild heavenly lamp, and poured out its rays before His 
 children's eyes, would never forget and forsake them. While 
 everything was made so beautiful as to seem ordered for the 
 pleasure of men, their lives and common comforts could not 
 be overlooked. 
 
 So plain did this now appear to Mildred, that she felt 
 less and less anxious and fearful ; and, after a time, as if 
 she was afraid of nothing at all, and could never be afraid 
 again. 
 
 She determined to go and seek Roger, not with any wish 
 like Ailwin's, that he could be bound by force, and carried 
 away, to be alone and miserable, but with a much happier 
 hope and purpose. She did not think he would hurt her; 
 but, if he did, she had rather that he should strike her than 
 that Oliver and he should fight, day after day, as Ailwin had 
 whispered to her they meant to do. She did not believe he 
 could come to blows with Oliver again after she had taken 
 all the blame upon herself. So she set forth to do so. 
 
 She went on quickly enough while she was upon the slope, 
 in the full moonlight, and with the blaze of Ailwin's fire not 
 
1 62 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 far off on her right hand. But she felt the difference when 
 she entered the shade of the trees. It was rather chilly there, 
 and very silent. There was only a rustle in the grass and 
 brambles about her feet, as if she disturbed some small 
 animals hidden there. When she thought she was far 
 enough away from her party not to be heard by them, she 
 began to call softly, hoping that Roger might presently an- 
 swer, so that she should not have to go much further into 
 the darkness. But she heard nothing but her own voice 
 as she called, 
 
 "Roger! where are you? Roger! I want to speak to 
 you." 
 
 Further and further on she went, and still there was no 
 reply. Though she knew every inch of her way she tripped 
 several times over the roots of the trees, and once she fell. 
 She saw the stars in the spaces of the wood as she looked up, 
 and knew that she should soon come out upon the grass 
 again. But when she did so she found it almost as dark as 
 in the wood, though the moon shone on 'the waters afar. She 
 still went on calling Roger, now a little louder, till she stumbieo. 
 over something which was not the root of a tree, for it was 
 warm, and it growled. 
 
 " Bishop ! " she exclaimed, in alarm, for next to Roger sne 
 had always been afraid of Roger's dog. 
 
 " Why don't you call him Spy ? " said Roger's voice from 
 the ground just before her. " What business have you" to call 
 him by his wrong name ? How is he ever to learn his name 
 if people come calling him by the wrong one ? Get away, 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 163 
 
 will you ? I know what I '11 do if you come here spoiling ray 
 dog." 
 
 " I will go back directly when I have said one thing. It 
 was all my fault that you and Oliver quarrelled this morning. 
 I was frightened, and screamed when I ought not, and it is 
 my fault that you are not now by our fire getting your supper 
 with us in our tent. I am sure I wish you were there." 
 
 " Very fine," said Roger. " He knows I thrashed him, and 
 he does not want any more of it. But I '11 thrash him as long 
 as I live, I tell you that." 
 
 " Oliver does not know about my coming — he is asleep in 
 the tent," protested Mildred. " Nobody knows of my coming. 
 I don't believe Oliver would have let me come if he had 
 known it. Only go and look yourself, and you will see how 
 he lies asleep on the grass. We know you can beat him in 
 fighting, because you are so much bigger, and that is why I 
 cannot bear that he should fight. It was all about me 
 this time, and I know he will never give up; and I don't 
 know how long it will be before he is big enough to thrash 
 you." 
 
 " Long enough, I can tell you; so get away and let me go 
 to sleep, or I '11 thrash you too." 
 
 " How can you talk so, Roger, and keep your anger so 
 when we are all so unhappy? I did not wonder much before 
 when Ailwin had to help Oliver. That was enough to make 
 you or anybody be angry. But now, when I come to tell you 
 how sorry I am, and that I know if I ask Oliver that he will 
 be glad to forget everything, and that you should come to 
 
 11— 2 
 
1 64 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 supper with us instead of lying here in the dark with nothing 
 to eat, I do think you ought to forgive and forget — to forgive 
 me, and forget all about thrashing Oliver." 
 
 Roger made no answer. 
 
 " Good bye, Roger," said Mildred. " I am sorry that you 
 choose to lie here, hungry and cold, instead of " 
 
 " What business have you in my island ? " interrupted 
 Roger, fiercely. " How dared you settle upon my ground, 
 to mock me with your fire and your supper? I '11 have my 
 fire and my supper too." 
 
 " I hope you will, if you will not come to ours. We were 
 obliged to settle here — the house is all cracking, and falling 
 to pieces. We were very sorry to come, — we were all so 
 tired ; — but we dared not stay in the house." 
 
 Roger uttered an exclamation which showed that a new 
 light had broken upon him, as to the causes of their 
 removal. 
 
 " Poor Geordie is so ill, we were most sorry to have to 
 move him. The time will come, Roger, though you don't 
 think so now, when you will be vexed that while we cannot 
 tell whether father and mother are alive or dead, and whether 
 George will live or die, you put the pain of quarrels upon 
 us too." 
 
 " Well, get you gone now ! " said Roger, not immediately 
 discovering that she was some paces on her way home again 
 before he said that much. 
 
 Mildred heard Ailwin calling her to supper, as she drew 
 near the tent. She did not say where she had been ; but 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 
 
 165 
 
 perhaps she was more on the watch, in consequence of what 
 had passed. She soon saw that Roger was sauntering under 
 the trees ; and indeed what she had said, and what he now 
 
 ROGER WHISTLES A LULLABY. 
 
 saw together, had altered Roger's mind. He was hungry, 
 and once more tired of being alone and sulky. He was 
 thinking how comfortable the fire and the steaming kettle 
 looked, and considering how he should make his approach, 
 when Mildred jumped up, and came running to him. 
 
 "They don't know that I came to find you," said she. 
 
1 66 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " Oliver will think it so kind of you to come and be friends ! 
 He will be so pleased ! And there is plenty of supper for 
 everybody.'' 
 
 She ventured to put her hand in his, and lead him forwards 
 into the light. She told Oliver that Roger was willing to 
 forgive and forget ; and Oliver said that he was quite willing 
 too. Oliver set a stool for Roger, and offered him his own 
 basin of broth. Ailwin held her tongue ; — which was the 
 most that could be expected of her. 
 
 Roger did not quite know what to say and do when he 
 had finished his supper, and fed Spy. He swung his legs 
 as he sat upon his stool, stared into the fire, and began to 
 whistle. Roger's shrillest whistle, as it had been sometimes 
 heard in the carr, was anything but agreeable ; but his low 
 whistle, when he was not thinking about it, was soft and 
 sweet. A gentle chuckle was soon heard from George, as 
 he lay across Mildred's knees. 
 
 " He likes it ! He likes such a whistle as that !" exclaimed 
 Mildred. Her eyes said to Roger, " Do go on ! " 
 
 Roger went on whistling, better and better, — more and 
 more softly, he drawing nearer, till he quite bent over the 
 poor sick child, who, after many signs of pleasure, dropped 
 off into a sleep, — a quiet, sound sleep. 
 
 " Thank you !" said Oliver, heartily. " Thank you, Roger !" 
 
 " You will do it again to-morrow, will you not, if he should 
 be fretful ? " said Mildred. 
 
 Roger nodded. Then he made the cloth drapery hang 
 better over the pillows on which the child was laid, so as to 
 
NEW QUARTERS. 
 
 167 
 
 keep off the dew completely, he said. Then he nodded again, 
 when Oliver gave him a blanket ; and once more he nodded 
 good night before he rolled himself up in it under a neigh- 
 bouring tree. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 
 
 In the morning it appeared that it had been right to re- 
 move to the Red-hill the night before. Only some fragments 
 of the roof of the house remained. Some beams and aquantity 
 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 
 
 168 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 169 
 
 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 float- 
 ing 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 : ir — the 
 house in ruins as it is— would suppose that any one could be 
 left alive here. From a distance they can hardly fancy that 
 even any little mouse could help being either drowned or 
 starved. This will be about the last spot in the Levels that 
 
170 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 any boat will come to. You see, Mildred, our Red-hill, 
 though it is everything to us, is but a speck compared with 
 the grounds that have stood above water since the waters 
 began to sink. We had better not think of anything but 
 living on as we can, unless it should please God that we 
 should die.'' 
 
 Roger did not want to hear anything more of this kind ; 
 so he went to where George was lying, and began to whistle 
 softly to him. The child was so altered, that his own mother 
 would hardly have known him ; but he smiled when he heard 
 the whistle, and the smile was his own. He put up his hand 
 and patted Roger's face, and even pulled his hair with a good 
 stout pull. Roger had been used to nurse his dog, though 
 not little children. He now took George into his arms, and 
 laid him comfortably across his knees, while he whistled till 
 the little fellow looked full in his face, and puckered up his 
 poor white lips, as if he would whistle too. This made 
 Roger laugh aloud ; and then George laughed. Ailwin 
 heard them, and peeped into the corner of the tent where 
 they were. She flew to Oliver, to tell him that Roger was at 
 his tricks worse than ever — he was bewitching the baby. She 
 was angry at Oliver for telling his sister, when he had looked 
 in too, that they might have been very glad any of them to 
 bewitch poor baby in this manner, when he was crying so 
 sadly all yesterday. Mildred, for her part, ran to thank 
 Roger, and say how glad she should be to be able to whistle 
 as he could. 
 
 " How should you?" said Roger; "you, who never had a 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 171 
 
 dog, or caught any sort of a bird in your life, I dare 
 say." 
 
 " No, I never could. One day, long ago, when mother 
 was very busy, and I was tired of playing, she gave me some 
 salt into my hand, and told me I might put it upon the birds r 
 tails in the garden, and so catch them ; but I did not gel 
 one. At last, half the salt was spilt, and the other half was 
 melted in my hand ; and then dinner was ready. 1 suppose 
 that was a joke of mother's." 
 
 "She wanted you out of the way; and what a fool you 
 must have been not to find that out ! Why, the birds could 
 not have been sillier, if they had let you put the salt upon 
 their tails." 
 
 " It was a long while ago," pleaded Mildred. 
 ■Here, take him," said Roger, popping George into her 
 arms. "Show him how to catch birds if you like. I can't 
 spend my time any longer here." 
 
 " How he cries after you ! " exclaimed Mildred. 
 It was the first time Roger had ever known anybody to be 
 sorry for his going away. The child was certainly crying 
 after him. He half turned back, but turned again, saying, 
 "Can't you tell him I will come again by-and-bye? I 
 must be off now." 
 
 The truth was, Roger had never forgotten the chest — the 
 oaken chest which looked so tempting when he saw it float- 
 ing down, and Oliver would not stop to catch it — the stout 
 chest which he knew to be now safe and sound somewhere 
 about the house, unless harm had happened to it during the 
 
I?2 
 
 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 'mothers watch. 
 
 night. Oliver agreed that it was of importance to bring this 
 chest on shore; and the boys lost no time in doing it. 
 Mildred came out with George to watch their proceedings, 
 and found that Oliver had already made one trip, and brought 
 over some articles of use and value. He came up to his 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 173 
 
 sister with something which he held carefully covered up in 
 both hands. He said gravely, 
 
 " Here, dear, put this in some safe place — where no one 
 will know of it but you and me." 
 
 " A watch ! mother's watch ! " 
 
 " I found it, with several things in her cupboard, thrown 
 down by the wall breaking." 
 
 " It does not seem to be hurt," observed Mildred. " And 
 how often you have wished for a watch." 
 
 "I think I shall never wish for anything again," said 
 Oliver. Mildred saw his face as he turned away, and began 
 to consider where she could put the watch, so that it might 
 be safe, and that Roger might not see it, nor Oliver be 
 reminded of it. 
 
 Ailwin and Roger were meantime disputing about which 
 should have the raft first — Roger wanting to secure the 
 chest, and Ailwin insisting that it was high time the cow was 
 milked. Oliver said he was master here in his father's 
 absence, and he would have no quarrels. All three should 
 go on the raft. Roger should be landed at the staircase, 
 where he could be collecting what he wanted to bring over, 
 while Oliver proceeded to set Ailwin ashore beside the cow. 
 By working to the number of three, in harmony, far more 
 would be gained than by using up strength in fighting and 
 disputing. He did not care how many times he crossed the 
 water this day, if those whom he rowed would but keep 
 the peace. He would willingly be their servant in rowing, 
 though he chose to be their master in deciding. 
 
174 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Ailwin stared at Oliver. It had struck Jier, and Mildred 
 too, that Oliver seemed to have grown many years older 
 since the flood came. He was no taller, and no stronger ; 
 indeed, he seemed to-day to be growing weaker with fatigue; 
 but he was not the timid boy he had always appeared 
 before. He spoke like a man, and there was the spirit of a 
 man in his eyes. It was not a singular instance. There 
 have been other cases in which a timid boy has been made 
 a man of, on a sudden, by having to protect, from danger or in 
 sorrow, some weaker than himself. Roger felt something of 
 the truth, and this had as much to do with making him quiet 
 and tractable today as his interest about George, or his 
 liking to live in a tent with companions, rather than in the 
 open air and alone. 
 
 Ailwin was but a short time gone. She came up the bank 
 to Mildred, swinging her empty milk-pail, and sobbing, as if 
 from the bottom of her heart. Mildred did not think she 
 had ever seen Ailwin cry so before, and she could imagine 
 nothing now but that Oliver was lost. She turned so giddy 
 in a moment that she could not see Ailwin, and so sick that 
 she could not speak to her. 
 
 " So you have heard, Mildred — you have heard, I see by 
 your being so white. Oliver says she has been dead ever so 
 many hours. I say, if we had gone the first thing, instead 
 of staring and poking about yon tumble-down house, we 
 might have saved her. I shall never milk her again — 
 not a drop — nor any other either, so far as I see; for there 
 is no saying that we shall ever get away. Here I have not 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 175 
 
 a drop of milk to give you, my dear, though you are as white 
 as the wall." 
 
 " Never mind," gasped Mildred, " if it is only the cow. 
 I thought it had been Oliver." 
 
 " Oliver ! Bless your heart ! there he is as busy about 
 the house and things, as if nothing had happened, and just 
 as provoking as you for caring nothing about the poor cow. 
 There she lies, poor soul ! dead and cold, half in the water 
 and half out. She was worth you two put together, for 
 some things, I can tell you that'' 
 
 " Indeed I am very sorry," said Mildred ; and as she saw 
 George pulling about the empty can, she melted into tears, 
 which would come faster and faster, till Oliver again stood 
 by her side. She tried to tell him what she had been afraid 
 of, and how she thought she should not have cried but for 
 that — or, at least, not so much ; but she really could not 
 explain what she felt, her sobs came so thick. 
 
 " I do not know exactly what you mean, dear," said Oliver; 
 " but I understand that you must be crying about the cow. 
 I am very sorry — very. I had rather have lost anything we 
 have left than the cow, now George is so ill." Here he bit 
 his lip, and looked away from George, lest he should cry like 
 his sister. He went on, however, talking rather quickly at 
 first, but becoming more composed as he proceeded. He 
 said, "I have been thinking that it will never do for us — who 
 may be near losing everything we have, and our lives, after 
 all — to grieve over each separate loss as it happens. When 
 you said your prayers the first night of the flood . . ." 
 
176 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " How long ago that does seem ! " exclaimed Mildred. 
 
 " It does, indeed ! " replied Oliver, glad to hear her say- 
 something distinctly. " When we said our prayers that night, 
 and whenever we have said them since, we begged that we 
 might be able to bear dying in this flood — to bear whatever 
 it pleased God to do. Now our right way is to make up our 
 minds at once to everything, and just in the way it pleases 
 God. Let us try to bear it cheerfully, whether we lose the 
 cow or anything else first, or whether we all die together. 
 That is the way, Mildred ! And if you and I should not die 
 together, that must be the way too." 
 
 " I hope we shall, though." 
 
 " I think it is very likely, and that before long. And then 
 how useless it will have been to be unhappy about anything 
 we can lose here ! People who may be so near to death 
 need not be anxious about this and that, like those who 
 seem to have long to live. So come, dear, and see this 
 chest, and help us to settle what should be done with it." 
 
 There was nothing about the outside of the chest to show 
 whose it might be. Everybody agreed that it ought to be 
 cpened immediately, lest all that it contained should be 
 spoiled by the wet. But how to open it was the question; 
 for it had a very stout lock, and strong hinges. After 
 many attempts, it was found that nothing short of proper 
 tools would answer the purpose ; and Oliver went to see if 
 his could be reached. Through piles of rubbish, and a 
 puddle of slimy water, he got to the spot where he had left 
 them — hidden behind straw, that the Redfurns might not 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 177 
 
 discover and spoil them. The straw was washed away, and 
 his beautiful lump of alabaster reduced to slime ; but his 
 tools were there — in no very bright condition, but safe. He 
 hastened away from the spot; for thoughts crowded upon 
 his mind of the day when he had last used these tools, and 
 the way of life in which he and Mildred had been so happy, 
 and which seemed now to be over for ever. He thought of 
 the beautiful stone carvings over the doorway, and of what 
 Pastor Dendel had said to him about them. They had 
 fallen ; and who knew what had become of kind Pastor 
 Dendel? The garden, with all its fresh green and gay 
 blossoms, was now a muddy stream ; rank smells and thick 
 mists now came up from what had been meadows and corn- 
 fields ; and his father, whose manly voice had been daily 
 heard singing from the mill, where was he ? It would not 
 do to stay thinking of these things ; so Oliver hastened back 
 with his tools, and with the heavy kitchen hammer, which 
 he also found. 
 
 None of these would open the chest. The party managed 
 it at last by heating a large nail, which they drew out from a 
 shattered door-post, and burning holes in the wood of the 
 chest, close by the nails which fastened the hinges, so as to 
 loosen them, and make them drop out. The lid being 
 raised, a great variety of articles was found within, so nicely 
 packed that the wet had penetrated but a very little way. 
 Mildred had looked on thoughtfully; and she saw that 
 Oliver paused when the contents lay open to view. She 
 looked in her brother's face, and said, 
 
178 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " I wonder who this chest belonged to ? " 
 
 " I was just thinking so too," observed Oliver. 
 
 " Never mind that," said Ailwin. " We may know, some 
 day or other, or we may not. Meantime, it is ours. Come, 
 make haste, and see what there is to wrap up poor baby in, 
 on cold nights.'' 
 
 " We will look for something of that sort, — I am sure we 
 might use such a thing as that,'' said Oliver ; " but " 
 
 " But," said Mildred, " I don't think these other things are 
 ours, any more than they ever were. Nobody ever gave 
 them to us. They have belonged to somebody else ; — to 
 somebody that may be wondering at this moment where 
 they are.'' 
 
 " Nonsense, Mildred!" exclaimed Ailwin. "Who gave you 
 the harness that braces the raft, or the meal you have been 
 living on these two days, I wonder ; and how do you know 
 but somebody is hungry, and longing for it, at this minute ?" 
 
 " I wish they had it, then," replied Mildred. " But Oliver, 
 were we wrong to use the meal ? I never thought of that.'. 
 
 " Nor I ; but I think we were right enough there. The 
 meal would all have been spoiled presently ; and meal (and 
 the harness too) is a sort of thing that we can pay for, or 
 make up for in some way, if ever we can meet with the 
 people who lost that chest." 
 
 "And George, and all of us, might have starved without 
 it." 
 
 "Yes; we must take what we want to eat, when it comes 
 in our way, and there is nobody to ask leave of; and, if ever 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 179 
 
 we get out of this place, we can inquire who lost a meal- 
 chest or set of harness, and offer to pay for what we took. 
 But I do think it is different with these things." 
 
 " So do I," said Mildred. " Those tablecloths, and that 
 embroidered cap, — somebody has taken pains to make them, 
 and might not like to sell them. And look ! Look at 
 Roger ! He has pulled out a great heavy bag of money.'' 
 
 "Now, Roger, put that bag where you found it," said 
 Oliver. " It is none of yours." 
 
 " How do I know that I shall find it again, the next time 
 I look ? " replied Roger, walking off with the bag. 
 
 Mildred was afraid of Oliver's following him, and of 
 another quarrel happening. She put her arm within her 
 brother's, and he could easily guess why. 
 
 " Don't be afraid, dear," he said. " If Roger chooses to 
 do a dishonest thing, it is his own affair. We have warned 
 him, and that is all we have to do with it. We must be 
 honest ourselves — that is all." 
 
 "Then I think we had better not look any further 
 into the chest," said Mildred, " only just to find something 
 warm to wrap Geordie in. The clothes look so nice, 
 we might fancy we wanted things that we can very well do 
 without." 
 
 " I am not much afraid of that," replied her brother ; 
 "and it would be a pity the things should spoil with the 
 damp. They would be dry in an hour in this warm sun, 
 and we could pack them away again before night." 
 
 " Roger will never let you do that," declared Ailwin. " Not 
 
I So THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 a rag will he leave to anybody that you don't stow away 
 while he is out of sight. Never did I see such perverse 
 children as you, and so thankless for God's gifts. I should 
 be ashamed to be no more grateful than you for what He 
 puts into your very hands." 
 
 Mildred looked at her brother now with a different face. 
 She was perplexed and alarmed, but she saw that Oliver was 
 not. 
 
 " Roger cannot carry off anything," he replied. " He 
 may bury and hide what he pleases; but they will all be 
 somewhere about the Red-hill ; and we can tell anybody 
 who comes to fetch us off whatever we know about the 
 goods." 
 
 "Nobody will ever come and fetch us' off," said Ailwin, 
 beginning to cry. " The people at a distance don't care a 
 straw what becomes of us ; and you children here at hand 
 are so perverse and troublesome, I don't know how to bear 
 my life between you." 
 
 " If nobody comes to save us," said Oliver, calmly, " I do 
 not see what good this money and these fine clothes will do 
 to Roger and you." 
 
 " Roger and me ! Pray what do you mean by that ? " 
 
 " I mean that you and he are for taking these things that 
 do not belong to us, and Mildred and I are against it. Only 
 tell me this one thing, Ailwin — do you believe that yout 
 cloak and stockings were sent in Nan Redfum's way, that 
 she might take them, and do you think it would have been 
 perverse in her not to run away with them ? " 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 
 
 " Now, Oliver, what nonsense you talk ! As if I wanted a 
 rag of these things for my own wear ! As if I would touch 
 a penny that was not honestly got ! " 
 
 " So I always thought before, and so I shall think now, if 
 you will help Mildred to dry whatever is damp, and then 
 pack all away safely — all but such things as may do poor 
 Geordie good." 
 
 Roger was not long in finding a hole in a tree where he 
 could hide his bag of money. He cut a small cross in the 
 bark by which he might know the tree again, and hastened 
 back, to see what else he could secure. He found plenty of 
 pretty things hanging on the bushes, and did not wait for 
 their being quite dry to dress himself as he had never been 
 dressed before. With the embroidered cap above-mentioned 
 on his head, a scarlet waistcoat, worked with silver thread, 
 hanging loose about his body, and a light blue coat, whose 
 skirts reached his heels, he looked so little like the dirty 
 ragged Roger, that Geordie shrank back from him, at first 
 sight, and did not smile till he heard the soft whistle again. 
 After that, he seemed more pleased with the finery than all 
 the rest of the party together. 
 
 Ailwin glanced scornfully upon it, as if she had disap- 
 proved from the beginning its being touched, and Oliver and 
 Mildred looked grave. 
 
 So very much pleased was Geordie with the gay waistcoat, 
 that Roger took him into his arms, that he might be able to 
 stroke it, and play with the silver flowers. It was little 
 fatigue now, except to the spirits, to nurse poor George. 
 
1 82 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 He was shrunk to skin and bone, and so light as to startle 
 those who had been accustomed to lift him. It was grievous, 
 however, to look at the ghastly stretched features, the flabby 
 tremulous little arms, and the suffering expression of counten- 
 ance. To hear his feeble cry was worse still. Oliver was 
 really glad to take Mildred away from seeing and hearing him 
 as long as the child would be quiet with Roger ; so he asked 
 her to filter more water through the gravel. He begged her 
 to get ready a great deal — enough for them all to drink, and 
 to bathe George in, for the water about them was becoming 
 of a worse quality every day. It was unsafe even to live 
 near, and much more to drink. So he scraped up a 
 quantity of clean dry gravel from the ledges of the precipice 
 where the first flood had thrown it, and helped Mildred to 
 press this gravel down in the worn old basket. This basket 
 they set across the tub, which they first thoroughly cleaned. 
 Mildred poured water upon the gravel by degrees, and it was 
 astonishing how much purer and better it came out of the 
 tub than it went into the basket. When the tub was full, 
 Ailwin heated some of the water presently over her large fire, 
 and made a warm bath for the child. 
 
 Roger was unwilling to give him up when the bath wa s 
 ready, so new and so pleasant did he find it to be liked and 
 loved by anybody, to have power over any one, so much 
 more easy and delightful to exercise than that of force ; but 
 not only was the bath ready, and must not be left to cool, 
 but Oliver beckoned hire away on some very particular 
 business. 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 183 
 
 This business was indeed pressing. Ail the party had 
 complained that the bad smells about the Red-hill became 
 really oppressive. They did not know how great was the 
 danger of their all falling ill of fever in consequence ; but 
 every one of them felt languid and uncomfortable. Oliver 
 made the circuit of the hill to discover whether there was 
 any cause for this evil that could be removed. He was sur- 
 prised to find the number of dead animals that were lying 
 about in holes and corners, as well as the heap of Roger's 
 game, now actually putrefying in the sun. There was also a 
 dead horse thrown up, on the side where the quarry was, 
 and about this horse were such swarms of flies as Oliver had 
 never seen. It was to consult about pushing back this horse 
 into the stream, and clearing away all other dead things that 
 they could find, that Oliver now called Roger. 
 
 Roger was struck with what he observed. He saw no diffi- 
 culty in clearing away the game he ought never to have left 
 lying in a heap in the sun. He believed, too, that with 
 stout poles he and Oliver could shove the horse into the 
 water, and, with a line tied to its head, tow it out of the still 
 water into the current, which yet ran from the quarry. But 
 what troubled him more was that there was evidently a mor- 
 tality among the animals on the hill. They were dying in all 
 directions— some for want of proper food, and from being 
 put out of their usual habits, others from being preyed upon 
 by their stronger neighbours. Nothing seemed to thrive but 
 the ravenous birds which came in clusters, winging their way 
 over the waters, and making a great rustling of their pinions 
 
1 84 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 as they descended to perch upon some dead animal, pulling 
 it to pieces before the very eyes of the boys, as they stood 
 consulting what to do. It was a horrid sight, and it brought 
 the horrid thought that soon probably there would be no game 
 left for food for the party, and that what there was meantime 
 might be unwholesome. Oliver had never imagined that the 
 bold boy, Roger Redfurn, could look so alarmed as he did 
 at this moment. 
 
 "Never mind, now, Roger,'' said he, "what is likely to 
 become of you and me. Wait and find that out by-and-bye. 
 What I am afraid of is seeing Mildred look at all as George 
 does now. Come, let us set to work. Don't stand looking 
 up in the sky in that way. Help me — do. Cannot Spy help? 
 Call him, will you ? " 
 
 " We can't get away ! " exclaimed Roger, as if now, for the 
 first time, awakened to his situation. " Those vile birds 
 they can go where they like — nasty creatures— and we can- 
 not stir from where we are ! " 
 
 " I wish we had our singing birds back again, instead of 
 these creatures," said Oliver. " Our shy, pretty, innocent 
 little birds, that used to be so pleased to pick up twigs and 
 straws to build their nests with, and be satisfied with the 
 worms and slugs and flies that they cleared away from the 
 garden. I wish we had them, instead of these ugly, saucy, 
 dirty birds. But our birds are happier somewhere else, I 
 dare say ; in some dry, pleasant place among those hills, all 
 sweet with flowers, and cool with clear running water." 
 
 " They can get there, and we can't. We can't get out of 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 185 
 
 this hot steaming place ; and those hills look further off every 
 day. I wish my uncle had been dead before he brought us 
 down off the moors last time. I wish he had, I know. If 
 was on the moor now, after the plovers " 
 
 " Come, come ; forget all that now, and set to work," in- 
 terrupted Oliver. " If you won't call Spy to help, I will see 
 whether he will mind me." 
 
 Spy came, with some hesitation, in answer to a whistle 
 which was like his master's, but not exactly the same. His 
 master soon set him to work, and began to work himself, in 
 a sort of desperation. It was astonishing what a clearance 
 was made in a short time. But it did not do all the good 
 that was expected. There was so much vegetable decay 
 in the region round, that the floating dead animals off to a 
 distance caused only a partial relief. 
 
 While the boys were hard at work at their disagreeable 
 task, Mildred was enjoying seeing George in his warm 
 bath. Ailwin held him there, while Mildred continued her 
 useful business of filtering water, talking to the child all the 
 while. 
 
 The poor little fellow soon left off crying, and moved his 
 weak limbs about in the tepid water, trying to splash Ailwin 
 as he had been wont to splash his mother in play, every 
 morning when she washed and dressed him. 
 
 " I am sure it does him a great deal of good," exclaimed 
 Mildred. " I will filter quantities of water; and he shall have 
 a bath as often as ever it is good for him. Suppose it should 
 make him well ? " 
 
1 86 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Ailwin shook her head. She saw how impossible it would 
 be even to keep a healthy child well in the absence of proper 
 food, in an unwholesome atmosphere, and without sufficient 
 shelter from the changes of weather which might come at any 
 
 geordie's last bath. 
 
 hour, and must come soon. How unlikely it was that a sick 
 baby should recover under such circumstances, she was well 
 aware. Yet she little thought how near the end was. 
 
 After his bath Geordie lay nicely covered up on a mattress 
 under the tent. One or other of his nurses visited him every 
 few minutes, and both were satisfied that he was comfortably 
 asleep. 
 
 The boys came for some dinner at last ; and while Oliver 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 187 
 
 went to wash his hands in clean water, Roger stooped over 
 the child to kiss him. Before doing so, however, he started 
 back, and asked Ailwin why the baby's eyes looked so 
 strangely. They were half closed, and seemed like neither 
 sleep nor waking. Ailwin sat down on the mattress, and took 
 him into her arms while Mildred ran to call Oliver. The 
 poor child stretched himself stiff across Ailwin's knees, and 
 then breathed no more. 
 
 When Oliver and Mildred came running back, Ailwin was 
 putting her cheek near the child's mouth, to feel if there was 
 indeed no breath. She shook her head, and her eyes ran 
 over with tears. Oliver kneeled down and put his hand to 
 the heart— it did not beat. He lifted the wasted arm — it 
 fell as if it had never had life in it. There lay the little 
 body, still unmoved, with the face composed, the eyes dim 
 and half-closed, the ear hearing nothing, the tongue silent, 
 while all were calling on little George to say something he had 
 been fond of saying, to hearken to something he had loved 
 to hear, and — all in vain. 
 
 " Whistle to him, Roger! " exclaimed Mildred, through her 
 trembling. " Try if he cannot hear that Whistle to him 
 softly." 
 
 Roger tried ; but no notice was taken of the forced, irre- 
 gular whistle which was the best he could give at the moment. 
 
 " Listen, dear ! Hark, George ! Only hear ! " exclaimed 
 Mildred and Ailwin. 
 
 " Oh, hush ! all of you ! " exclaimed Oliver. " Be quiet, 
 Mildred, dear! Our little brother is dead." 
 
188 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 Roger threw himself on the grass, and hid his face on his 
 arras. He moaned and rocked himself about so that, even 
 in the first moments of their grief, the brother and sister 
 looked at each other with awe. 
 
 " Come away with me, dear," whispered Oliver to his 
 sister. " Ailwin, give George to me. Let me have him in 
 my arms.'' 
 
 " Bless you, my dears; it is not George any longer. It is 
 a poor little dead body. You must not call it George." 
 
 " Give him to me,'' said Oliver. He took the body from 
 Ailwin's arms, carrying it as gently as if anything could have 
 hurt it now; and he and Mildred walked away towards the 
 spot where the bee-shed had stood. Ailwin gazed after them, 
 dashing away the tears with the back of her hand, when they 
 gathered so that she could not see. 
 
 Oliver .ind Mildred walked on till they could descend the 
 bank a little, and sit just above the waters, where they knew 
 they were out of sight of everybody. This bank presented a 
 strange appearance, such as the children had been wondering 
 at for some days, till Ailwin remembered that she had often 
 heard say that there was once a thick forest growing where 
 the Levels were now spread, and that the old trees were every 
 one, somehow, underground. It now appeared that this was 
 true. As the earth was washed away in the channel, and cut 
 down along the bank, large trunks of trees were seen lying 
 along, black as coal. Some others started out of the bank, 
 and the roots of a few spread like network, holding the soil 
 together and keeping the bank firm in that part. Upon one of 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 189 
 
 the trunks that jutted out Oliver took his seat, and Mildred 
 placed herself beside him. 
 
 " Let him lie on my knee now," said she. 
 
 " Presently," said Oliver. "How easy and quiet he looks! " 
 
 •'And how quietly he died!" observed Mildred. "I did 
 not think it had been such an easy thing to die, or half so 
 easy for us to bear to see." 
 
 " The hard part is to come, dear. We are glad now to see 
 him out of his pain — so comfortable as he looks at this mo- 
 ment. The hard part will be not to hear his little voice any 
 
 more — never But we must not think of that now. I 
 
 hope, Mildred, that you are not sorry, that George is dead. 
 I am not when I think that he may be with father and mother 
 already." 
 
 "Already?" 
 
 "Yes, if they are dead. Perhaps they ha\e been pitying 
 poor baby all the time he has been ill, crying and moaning 
 so sadly; and now he may be with them, quite happy, and 
 full of joy to meet them again." 
 
 "Then they may be seeing us now." 
 
 " Yes ; they will not forget us, even the first moment that 
 George's little spirit is with them. Do not let them see us 
 sad, Mildred. Let them see that we are glad that they should 
 have George when we could do nothing for him. ' 
 
 "But we shall miss him so when Oliver, he must 
 
 be buried." 
 
 " Yes. When that is done we shall miss him sadly. We 
 must expect that. But we must bear it.' 
 
jgo THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "If we die here," said Mildred, " it will be easy to do with- 
 out him for such a little while. But if we ever get away — if 
 we grow up to be as old as father and mother — what shall we 
 do all those years without once hearing Geordie laugh, or 
 having him to wake us in the morning ? What long things 
 people's lives are ! It will seem as if ours would never 
 be done if we have to wait all that time to see Geordie 
 again." 
 
 " I wish we were dead ! " sighed Oliver. 
 
 " I am sure so do I. And dying is so very easy ! " 
 
 "The pastor always said there was nothing to be afraid of," 
 said Oliver — " I mean for innocent people. And Geordie was 
 so innocent, he was fit to go directly to God." 
 
 " If we die here," said Mildred, " Roger must too. What 
 was the matter with him just now, do you think? Was he 
 thinking about that?" 
 
 " He was very miserable about something. Oh, Mildred, 
 do look ! Did you ever see Geordie look sweeter ? Yes, 
 you may have him now." 
 
 And Oliver quietly laid the child in Mildred's arms. 
 
 "Yet," said he, sighing, "we must bury him." 
 
 " Oh, when ? " asked Mildred. 
 
 " Better do it while his face looks as it does now. To- 
 morrow is Sunday. We will do no work to-morrow, and 
 bury Geordie." 
 
 "Where? How?" 
 
 "We will choose the prettiest place we can find, and the 
 quietest." 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 
 
 191 
 
 THE RELEASED PRISONER. 
 
 "I wish the pastor was here," said Mildred. "I never 
 saw a funeral, except passing one in the road sometimes." 
 
 " We need not be afraid of doing wrong about the funeral, 
 dear. We must make some kind of little coffin ; and Roger 
 will help me to dig a grave. And if we have no pastor to 
 say prayers, you and I know that in our hearts we shall be 
 thanking God for taking our little brother, to be safe and 
 happy with Him." 
 
10 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " And then I may plant some flowers upon his grave, may 
 not I ? And that will bring the bees humming over it. How 
 fond he was of going near the hives, to hear the bees hum ! 
 Where shall his grave be ? " 
 
 " Under one of the trees, one of the shadiest." 
 
 " Oh, dear — here comes Ailwin ! I wish she would let 
 us alone." 
 
 Ailwin was crying too much to speak. She took the 
 body from Mildred's arms with a gentle force, kissing the 
 little girl as she did so. She covered up the baby's face 
 with her apron as she walked away. 
 
 The children went among the trees to fix on a spot for the 
 grave. They found more than one that they liked ; but 
 suddenly remembered that the ground was hard, and that 
 they had no spade, nor any tool with which they could 
 make a deep hole. 
 
 Oliver was greatly disturbed at this, — more than he chose 
 to show when he saw how troubled his sister also was. After 
 thinking for some time, to no purpose, — feeling that he could 
 not bear to commit the body to the foul flood, and re- 
 membering with horror how many animals were scratching 
 up the earth all over the Red-hill, where the ground was 
 not too hard, and how many odious birds of prey were now 
 hovering in the air at all hours, — after thinking over these 
 things with a heavy heart, he begged Mildred to go home 
 to Ailwin, and to ask Roger to come to him in the wood, to 
 consult what must be done. 
 
 Mildred re? 'lily went; but she hardly liked to speak to 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 193 
 
 Roger when she saw him. He was watching with a sulky 
 air what Ailwin was doing, as she bent over the mattress. 
 His eyes were red with crying; but he did not seem the 
 more gentle for that. When Mildred had given her message, 
 he moved as if he thought it a great trouble to go; but 
 
 Mildred then suspected what was indeed the truth, — that he 
 was unhappy at the child's death, and was ashamed of ap- 
 pearing so, and put on a gruff manner to hide it. Seeing 
 this, the little girl ran after him, as he sauntered away, put 
 her hand in his, and said, 
 
 "Do help Oliver, all you can. I know how he would 
 have tried to help you, if George had been your little 
 brother," 
 
 13 
 
194 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 "Tis all the same as if he had been,'' muttered Roger. 
 " I 'm sure I am just as sorry." 
 
 " Are you, indeed ? " said Mildred, her eyes now filling 
 with tears. 
 
 Roger could not bear to see that, and he hastened away. 
 
 Mildred found a great change when she looked on the 
 baby's face again. The eyes were quite closed, and Ailwin 
 had tied a bandage round his head, under the chin and 
 among the thick hair which used to curl so prettily, but 
 which had hung straight and damp since he had been ill. 
 He was now strangely dressed, and laid out straight and 
 stiff. He did not look like Geordie; and now Mildred 
 began to know the dreary feelings that death brings into 
 families. She longed for Oliver to come home ; and would 
 have gone to see what he was about, but that she did not 
 like to leave the tent and the body while Ailwin was busv 
 elsewhere, which was now the case. 
 
 When, at length, the boys returned, they reported that, 
 for many reasons, there could not be a grave under the trees, 
 as they would have liked. They had hopes of making one 
 which would save the body from the flood, and would serve 
 at least till the day (if that day ever came) when it might be 
 removed to some churchyard. They had no tools to dig a 
 deep hole with ; and if there was a hole, it must be deep ; 
 but they found they could excavate a space in the bank 
 under the trunk of one of the large buried forest trees. They 
 could line this hole with hewn stones brought from the 
 shattered wall of the house, and could close it in also with 
 
ONE PRISONER RELEASED. 
 
 195 
 
 a stone, thus making the space at once a coffin and a grave, 
 as secure from beast or bird of prey as any vault under any 
 church-wall. Oliver had found among the ruins one of the 
 beautiful carved stones, which he had always admired as it 
 surmounted the doorway of their home. With this he meant 
 to close in the little vault. At some future time, if no one 
 should wish to disturb the remains, ivy might be led over 
 the face of the bank and about this sculptured stone ; and 
 then he thought even those who most loved little George 
 could not wish him a better grave. - 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 
 
 Oliver so much wished that the next day (Sunday, and 
 the day of his little brother's funeral) should be one of rest 
 and decent quiet, that he worked extremely hard as long as 
 the light lasted, and was glad of all the help the rest of the 
 party could give. 
 
 To make an excavation large enough for the body was no 
 difficult task, the earth being soft, and easily removed from 
 the trunks, roots, and branches of buried trees, which seemed 
 to run all through the interior of the bank. But the five 
 stones with which the grave was to be lined were of consi- 
 derable thickness, and Oliver chose to have them nicely 
 fitted in, that no living creature should be able to enter this 
 place sacred to the dead. 
 
 How astonished were they all to find that this was 
 already a place of the dead ! While Ailvvin was holding 
 
 196 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 197 
 
 one of the stones against one end of the excavation, and 
 Oliver was striking and fixing it with the great hammer, 
 Roger was emptying out soil from the other end. He ex- 
 claimed that he had come upon some large thing made of 
 leather. 
 
 " I daresay you have," said Ailwin. " There are all manner 
 of things found by those who dig in the Levels — except useful 
 things, I mean. No one ever knew anything useful come out 
 of these odd places." 
 
 "You are wrong there," said Roger. " I have got useful 
 things myself from under the carr that brought me more 
 money than any fish and fowl I ever took out of the 
 ponds on it. Uncle and I found some old red earthenware 
 things " 
 
 "Old red earthenware!" exclaimed Ailwin. "As if old 
 earthenware was better than fish and fowl, when there is 
 so much new to be had nowadays! My uncle is a sailor, 
 always going between this and Holland, and he says the 
 quantity of ware they bring over in a year will hold victuals 
 for all Lincolnshire. And Dutch ware does not cost above 
 half what it did in my grandfather's time, so don't you be 
 telling your wonderful tales, Roger. We shan't believe 
 them." 
 
 " Well, then, don't. But I say again, uncle Stephen and 
 I took gold for the old red ware we got out of a deep hole 
 in the carr." 
 
 " Very likely, indeed. I wonder who has gold to throw 
 
198 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 away in that manner. However, I don't say but there may 
 be such. 'Fools and their money are soon parted,' some 
 folks say." 
 
 " Who gave you the gold ? " asked Oliver. 
 
 " You may ask that," said Roger, " but you may not believe 
 me when I tell you. You know the Earl of Arundel comes 
 sometimes into these parts. Well, it was he.'' 
 
 "When? Why?" 
 
 " He often comes down to see the Trent, having the care 
 of the forests upon it ; and one time he stopped near here on 
 his way into Scotland about some business. They say he has 
 a castle full of wonderful things somewhere " 
 
 " What sort of things ? " asked Ailwin. " Horn spoons and 
 pewter drinking-mugs to his old red earthenware ? " 
 
 "Perhaps," replied Roger. " But I heard nothing of them. 
 What I heard of was old bricks and stone figures, and all 
 manner of stone jars. Well, a gentleman belonging to the 
 Earl of Arundel chanced to come across us just after we had 
 found a pitcher or two down in the moss, and he made us go 
 with him to the Earl " 
 
 " You don't mean that you ever saw a lord to speak to ! " 
 exclaimed Ailwin, turning sharp round upon Roger. 
 
 "I tell you I did, and uncle too." 
 
 Ailwin muttered that she did not believe a word of it, but 
 her altered manner towards Roger at the moment, and ever 
 after, showed that she did. 
 
 " He asked us all manner of questions about the Levels," 
 continued Roger—" I mean about the things that lie in the 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 199 
 
 moss. He did not seem to care about the settlers and the 
 crops otherwise than in the way of business. All that he did 
 about the earthenware was plainly for his pleasure. He bought 
 all we could find on that spot, and he said if we found any 
 
 more curiosities at any time we were But I can't stand 
 
 talking any more.'' 
 
 And Roger glanced with suspicious eyes from the piece of 
 leather (as he called it) that he had met with in the bank to 
 Oliver. He wanted to have the sole benefit of this new 
 discovery. 
 
 " And what were you to do, if you found anything more ?" 
 asked Ailwin. " One might easily bury some of the ware my 
 uncle brings, and keep it in the moss till it is well wetted ; 
 and then some earl might give one gold for it. Come, Roger, 
 tell me what you were to do with your findings. You owe it 
 to me to tell me ; considering that your people have got away 
 my cloak and warm stockings.'' 
 
 " Look for them in the moss, — you had better," said Roger. 
 " You will find them there or nowhere.'' 
 
 Not a word more would he say of his own concerns. 
 
 Oliver did not want to hear more. On being told of the 
 Earl of Arundel's statues and vases, he had, for a moment, 
 longed to see them, and wondered whether there were any 
 alabaster cups in the collection ; but his thoughts were pre- 
 sently with George again. He remembered that Mildred 
 had been left long enough alone with the body; and he 
 dismissed Ailwin, saying that he himself should soon have 
 done, it was now growing so dark. 
 
5oo THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 As he worked on silently and thoughtfully, Roger supposed 
 he was observing nothing ; and therefore ventured, turning 
 his back on Oliver, to investigate a little more closely the 
 leathern curiosity he had met with. He disengaged the earth 
 more and more, drew something out, and started at what 
 he saw. 
 
 "You have found a curiosity/' observed Oliver quietly. 
 " That is a mummy." 
 
 " No — 't is a man," exclaimed Roger, in some agitation. 
 " At least it is something like a man. Is not this like an 
 arm, with a hand at the end of it ? — a little dried, shrunk, 
 ugly arm. 'T is not stiff, neither. Look ! It can't be Uncle 
 Stephen, sure — -or Nan ! " 
 
 " No, no ; it is a mummy — a human body which has been 
 buried for hundreds and thousands of years." 
 
 Roger had never heard of a mummy ; and there was no 
 great wonder in that, when even Oliver did not rightly know 
 the meaning of the word. All animal bodies (and not only 
 human bodies) which remain dry, by any means, instead of 
 putrefying, are called mummies. 
 
 "What do you mean by hundreds and thousands of years?" 
 said Roger. " Look here, how the arm bends, and the wrist ! 
 I believe I could make its fingers close on mine," he con- 
 tinued, stepping back— evidently afraid of the remains which 
 lay before him. " If I was sure, now, that it was not Stephen 
 
 or Nan But the peat-water does wonders, they say, with 
 
 whatever lies in it." 
 
 " So it does. It preserves bodies, as I told you. I will 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 
 
 show you in a minute that it is nobody you have ever 
 known." 
 
 And Oliver took from Roger's hand the slip of wood with 
 which he had been working, and began to clear out more 
 soil about the figure. 
 
 "Don't; don't now!" exclaimed Roger. "Don't uncover 
 the face ! If you do, I will go away." 
 
 " Go, then," replied Oliver. It appeared as if the bold 
 boy and the timid one had changed characters. The reason 
 was that Roger had some very disagreeable thoughts con- 
 nected with Stephen and Nan Redfurn. He never forgot, 
 when their images were before him, that they had died in 
 the midst of angry and contemptuous feelings between them 
 and him. Oliver, on the other hand, was religious. Thoug h 
 in easy times, more afraid than he ought to have been of dis- 
 honest and violent persons, he had yet enough trust in God 
 to support his spirits and his hope in trial, as we have seen ■ 
 and about death and the grave, and the other world, where 
 he believed the dead went to meet their Maker and Father, 
 he had no fear at all. Nothing that Roger now said,, there- 
 fore, made him desist, till he had uncovered half the dried 
 body. 
 
 "Look here ! " said he— for Roger had not gone away as 
 he had threatened — " come closer and look, or you will see 
 nothing in the dusk. Did either Stephen or Nan wear their 
 hair this way? And is this dress anything like Ailwin's cloak? 
 Look at the long black hair hanging all round the little flat 
 brown face. And the dress : it is the skin of some beast, 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 with the hair left on — a rough-edged skin, fastened with a bit 
 of something like coal on the left shoulder. I dare say it was 
 once a wooden skewer. I wonder how long ago this body 
 was alive. I wonder what sort of a country this was to live 
 in at that day." 
 
 Roger's fear having now departed, his more habitual feel- 
 ings again prevailed. 
 
 " I say," said he, returning to the spot, and wrenching the 
 tool from Oliver's hand; "I say — don't you meddle any 
 more. The curiosity is mine, you know. I found it, and 
 it 's mine." 
 
 " What will you do with it ? " asked Oliver, who saw that, 
 even now, Roger rather shrank from touching the limbs, and 
 turned away from the open eyes of the body. 
 
 " It will make a show. If I don't happen to see the earl, 
 so as to get gold for it, I '11 make people give me a penny 
 a-piece to see it • and that will be as good as gold presently." 
 
 " I wish you would bury it," earnestly exclaimed Oliver, 
 as the thought occurred to him that the time might come, 
 though perhaps hundreds of years hence, when dear little 
 George's body might be found in like manner. He could 
 not endure the idea of that body being ever made a show 
 of. 
 
 Of course Roger would not hear of giving up his treasure ; 
 and Oliver was walking away, when Roger called after him, 
 
 " Don't go yet, Oliver. Wait a minute, and I will come 
 with you." 
 
 Oliver proceeded, however, thinking that Roger would 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 203 
 
 have to acquire some courage yet before he could carry about 
 his mummy for a show. 
 
 Oliver was only going for Mildred— to let her see, before 
 it was quite dark, what had been done, and what found. 
 When they returned, Roger was standing at some distance 
 from the bank, apparently watching his mummy as it lay in 
 the cleft that he had cleared. He started when he heard 
 Mildred's gentle voice exclaiming at its being so small and 
 so dark-coloured. She next wondered how old it was. 
 
 After the boys had examined the ground again, and put 
 together all they had heard about the ancient condition of 
 the Levels, they agreed that this person must have been 
 buried, or have died alone in the woods, before the district 
 became a marsh. Pastor Dendel had told Oliver about the 
 thick forest that covered these lands when the Romans in 
 vaded Britain j and how the inhabitants fled to the woods, 
 and so hid themselves there that the Roman soldiers had to 
 cut down the woods to get at them ; and how the trees, falling 
 across the courses of the streams, dammed them up, so that 
 the surrounding soil was turned into a swamp ; and how 
 mosses and water-plants grew over the fallen trees, and 
 became matted together, so that more vegetation grew on 
 the top of that, till the ancient forest was at length quite 
 buried in the carr. Oliver now reminded his sister of all 
 this, and they looked with a kind of veneration on the form 
 which they supposed was probably that of an ancient Briton, 
 who, flying from the invaders into the recesses of the forest, 
 had perished there alone. There was no appearance of his 
 
204 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 having been buried. No earthen vessels, or other remains, 
 such as were usually found in the graves of the ancients, 
 appeared to be contained in the bank. If he had died lying 
 along the ground, his body would have decayed like other 
 bodies, or been devoured by wild beasts. Perhaps he was 
 drowned in one of the ponds or streams of the forest, and 
 the body, being immediately washed over with sand or mud, 
 was thus preserved. 
 
 "What is the use of guessing and guessing?" exclaimed 
 Roger. "If people should dig up George's bones out of 
 this bank a thousand years hence, and find them lying in a 
 sort of oven, as they would call -it, with a fine carved stone 
 for one of the six sides, do you think they could ever guess 
 how all these things came to be here ? " 
 
 " This way of burying is an accident, such as no one would 
 think of guessing," said Oliver, sighing. "And this dried 
 body may be here, to be sure, by some other accident that 
 we know nothing about. I really wish, Roger, you would 
 cover up the corpse again ; at least, till we know whether we 
 shall all die together here." 
 
 This was what Roger could never bear to hear of. He 
 always ran away from it ; and so he did now. Dark as it 
 was growing, he passed over to the house, and mounted the 
 staircase (which stood as firm as ever, and looked something 
 like a self-supported ladder). While he was vainly looking 
 abroad for boats, which the shadows of the evening would 
 have prevented his seeing if they had been there by hundreds, 
 the brother and sister speculated on one thing more in con- 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 205 
 
 nection with the spectacle which had powerfully excited their 
 imaginations. Mildred whispered to Oliver, 
 
 " If this old man and George lie together here, I wonder 
 whether their spirits will know it, and come together in 
 heaven.'' 
 
 They talked for some time about the difference there must 
 be between the thoughts of an ancient Briton, skin-clothed, a 
 hunter of the wolf, and living on the acorns and wild animals 
 of the forest, and the mind of a little child, reared in the 
 Levels, and nourished and amused between the farmyard 
 and the garden. Yet they agreed there must have been some 
 things in which two so different thought and felt alike. The 
 sky was over the heads of both, and the air around them, 
 and the grass spread under their feet — both, too, had, no 
 doubt, had relations, by whom they had been beloved ; and 
 there is no saying how many things may become known alike 
 to all on entering upon the life after death. Oliver and 
 Mildred resolved, that if ever they should see Pastor Dendel 
 again, they would ask him what he thought of all this. They 
 agreed that they would offer to help Roger to seek for other 
 curiosities, to make a show of; and would give him, for his 
 own, all they could find, if he would but consent to bury 
 this body again decently, and beside little George. 
 
 The supper was eatable to-night, and so was the breakfast 
 on the Sunday morning, and yet Roger scarcely touched any- 
 thing. Oliver heard him tossing and muttering during the 
 night, and was sure that he was ill. He was ill. He would 
 not allow that he was so, however, and dressed himself again 
 
206 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 in the fine clothes he had taken from the chest. It was 
 plain, from his shaking hand and his heavy eye, that he was 
 too weak, and his head aching too much for him to be able 
 to do any work ; therefore Ailwin helped Oliver to .finish the 
 grave. 
 
 Roger inquired how the work proceeded, and it appeared 
 that he meant to attend the funeral, when he found that it 
 was to be in the afternoon. His companions did not believe 
 him able, and he himself doubted it in his heart, resolved 
 as he was to refuse to believe himself very ill, as long as he 
 could keep off the thought. He found an excuse, however, 
 for lying on the grass while the others were engaged at the 
 grave. 
 
 Oliver hinted to him, very gently, that Mildred and he 
 had rather see him dressed in the shabbiest clothes of his 
 own, than following their little brother to his grave in fine 
 things which they could not but consider stolen. Roger was, 
 in reality, only ashamed ; but he pretended to be angry, and 
 made use of the pretence to stay behind. While he lay, ill 
 and miserable, remembering that little George alone had 
 seemed to love him, and that George was dead, he believed 
 it impossible that any one should mourn the child as he 
 did in his heart. 
 
 Oliver himself took something from the chest — carefully 
 and reverently ; and carefully and reverently he put it back 
 before night. There was a Bible, in Dutch, and with it a 
 prayer-book. He carried these, while Ailwin carried the 
 body, wrapped in cloth, with another piece hanging over it, 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. 
 
 207 
 
 like a pall. As Oliver took Mildred's hand, and saw how 
 pale and sorrowful she looked (though quite patient) he felt 
 how much need they all had of the consolations and hopes 
 which speak to mourners from the book he held. 
 
 THE BURIAL SERVICE. 
 
 Ailwin did not understand Dutch ; so Oliver thought it 
 kindest and best to say in English what he read, both from 
 the Bible and prayer-book. He read a short portion of what 
 St. Paul says about the dead and their rising again. Then 
 all three assisted in closing the tomb, firmly and completely, 
 and then they kneeled down, and Oliver read a prayer for 
 mourners from his book. They did not sing, for he was not 
 
208 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 sure that Mildred could go through a hymn. He made a 
 sign to her to stay when Ailwin went home, and they two sat 
 down on the grass above the bank, and read together that 
 part of the Scripture in which Jesus desires His followers not 
 to let their hearts be troubled, but to believe in God and in 
 Him. 
 
 Mildred was soon quite happy, and Oliver was cheered to 
 see her so. He even began, after a time, to talk of the future. 
 He pointed out how the waters had sunk, leaving now, he 
 supposed, only about three feet of depth, besides mud and 
 slime. This mud would make the soil more fertile than it 
 had ever been, if the remainder of the flood could by any 
 means be drawn off. He thought his father might return, 
 and drain his ground, and rebuild the house. Then the bank 
 they sat on would overlook a more beautiful garden than they 
 had ever yet possessed. The whole land had been so well 
 warped (that is, flooded with fertilizing mud) that everything 
 that was planted would flourish. They might get the finest 
 tulip roots from Holland, and have a bed of them, and ano- 
 ther of choice auriculas, just below George's tomb; and 
 honeysuckles might be trained round' it, to attract the 
 bees. 
 
 Mildred liked to hear all this, and she said so ; but she 
 added that she should like it better still to-morrow, perhaps. 
 She felt so strangely tired now, that she could not listen any 
 more, even to what she liked to hear. 
 
 " Are you going to be ill, do you think, dear ? " 
 
GRAVES IN THE LEVELS. , 209 
 
 " I don't know. Don't you think Roger is ill ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and I dare say we shall all have the fever, from the 
 damps and bad smells of this place." 
 
 "Well — never mind about me, Oliver. I am only very, 
 very tired yet.'' 
 
 "Come home and lie down, and I will sit beside you," 
 said Oliver. " You will be patient, I know, dear. I will try 
 if I can be patient, if I should see you very ill." 
 
 He led her home and laid her down, and scarcely left her 
 •for many hours. It was plain now that the fever had seized 
 upon them ; and where it would stop who could tell ? During 
 the night he and Ailwin watched by turns beside their sick 
 companions. This would not have been necessary for 
 Mildred ; but Roger was sometimes a little delirious, and 
 they were afraid of his frightening Mildred by his startings 
 and strange sayings. 
 
 When Ailwin came at dawn to take Oliver's place, she 
 patted him on the shoulder and bade him go to sleep, and 
 be in no hurry to rouse himself again, for he would not be 
 wanted for anything if he should sleep till noon. 
 
 Oliver was tired enough, but there was one thing which 
 he had a great mind to do before he slept. He wished to 
 look out once again from the staircase, when the sun should 
 have risen, to see whether there was no moving speck on the 
 wide waters — no promise of help in what now threatened to 
 be his extremity. Ailwin thought him perverse, but did not 
 oppose his going when he said he was sure he should sleep 
 
 14 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 'better after it. She soon therefore saw his figure among the 
 ruins of the roof, standing up between her and the brighten- 
 ing sky. 
 
*&*s 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MORE HARDSHIP. 
 
 This morning was unlike the mornings which Oliver had 
 watched since the flood came. There was no glowing sky 
 towards the east ; and he saw that there would be no broad 
 train of light over the waters, which should so dazzle his eyes 
 as almost to prevent his seeing anything else. It was now a 
 stormy-looking sunrise. Huge piles of clouds lay on the 
 eastern horizon, through which it seemed impossible that the 
 rays of the sun should pierce. The distant church spire 
 looked black amidst the grey flood; and the houses and 
 chapel at Sandtoft, which now stood high out of the water, 
 had a dark and dismal air. Oliver would have been rather 
 glad to believe that there would be no sunshine this day, if 
 he had not feared there would be storm. He had so learned 
 in these few days to associate reeking fogs and putrid smells 
 with hot sunshine, that a shady day would have been a relief; 
 but if there should come a tempest, what could be done witli 
 
212 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 the sick members of the party? It was dangerous to stand 
 under the trees in a thunderstorm ; and the poor tent would 
 be soaked through with a quarter of an hour's rain. He 
 thought it would be best to take down the tent, and wrap up 
 Mildred and Roger in the cloth ; and to pile the mattresses 
 one upon another at the foot of the thickest tree they could 
 find, so that there might be a chance of one bed being left 
 dry for poor Mildred. 
 
 While arranging this in his mind, Oliver had been anxiously 
 looking abroad for any moving speck on the grey waters. See- 
 ing none, but perceiving that the clouds were slowly mounting 
 the sky and moving onwards, he felt that he ought to be going 
 to the hill, to make such preparations as were possible before 
 the first rain-drops should fall. Slowly and sadly he turned 
 away to do so, when, casting one more glance eastwards, he 
 perceived something moving — adark speck, leaving the ruined 
 roof of a dwelling which stood about half-way between himself 
 and the hamlet. 
 
 There could be no doubt that this speck was a boat, and 
 as it came nearer, Oliver saw that it was a large boat, but 
 quite full. He could distinguish no figures in it, so heavy 
 seemed the mass of people, or of goods, with which it was 
 crowded. It came on and on, however, and Oliver's heart 
 beat faster as it came. How he wished now that he had kept 
 a flag flying from the spot on which he stood ! How he wished 
 he now had a signal to fix on this height ! Though the boat- 
 people were still too far off to distinguish figures, a signal 
 might catch their eye. If he went to the Red-hill for a 
 
MORE HARDSHIP. 213 
 
 flag the boat might be gone away before his return. Trem- 
 bling with haste, he stripped off his shirt and swung it in 
 the air. He even mounted the top stone, which, surrounded 
 by no wall or other defence, hung over the waters below. 
 Oliver would have said half an hour before that he could 
 not have stood alone on this perilous point ; now, he not 
 only stood there, but waved his white signal with all his 
 strength. 
 
 Did anybody notice it ? 
 
 He once thought he saw what might have been an oar 
 lifted in the air, but he was not sure. He was presently only 
 too certain of something else — that the boat was moving away, 
 not in the direction in which it had approached, but south- 
 wards. He tried as long as he could to disbelieve this ; but 
 there it went — away, away — and Oliver had to come down 
 from his stone, put on his clothes again, and find how thirsty 
 he was. 
 
 There was hope still, he felt — great hope; but he must 
 keep it from Mildred, who was in no condition to bear the 
 disappointment of such a hope. He doubted whether Ailwin 
 could control her tongue and her countenance while pos- 
 sessed of such news. It would be hard not to be able to 
 tell any one of what so filled his thoughts ; and he resolved 
 to see first what state Roger was in. 
 
 When he reached the tent Roger was not there. Ailwin 
 could not tell where he was. He had staggered away like 
 a drunken person, she said, he seemed so giddy; but she 
 could not leave Mildred to see after him, though he had 
 
214 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 spoken to a lord ; if indeed that could be true of a boy like 
 him. Ailwin looked up at the clouds every moment as she 
 spoke ; and Mildred shivered, as if she missed the morning 
 sunshine. Oliver saw that he must make ready for the storm 
 before he prepared for what might follow. He and Ailwin 
 pulled down the long piece of cloth from its support, doubled 
 it again and again, and put Mildred into the middle of it. 
 Oliver longed to lay her under a leafy tree ; but he dared 
 not on account of the lightning, which was already beginning 
 to flash. He and Ailwin set up the deal table as a sortof pent- 
 house over her ; and then busied themselves, in her sight, in 
 piling together everything else they had, to keep as many 
 articles as possible from spoiling. 
 
 Oliver was just thinking that he might slip away to seek 
 Roger, when he saw that Mildred was sobbing, under the 
 heap of cloth they had laid upon her. In a moment he was 
 by her side, saying, 
 
 " What is the matter, dear ? Are you afraid of the storm ? 
 I never knew you afraid of thunder and lightning ; but per- 
 haps you may be now, because you are ill." 
 
 " No," sobbed Mildred. 
 
 " I cannot help being glad of this storm,'' continued 
 Oliver, " though it is disagreeable, at the time, to people who 
 who have no house to go to. I hope it will clear the air, and 
 freshen it ; and that is the very thing we want, to make you 
 better." 
 
 " It is not that, Oliver. I don't mind the storm at all." 
 
 " Then what makes you cry so, dear? Is it about Geordie?" 
 
MORE HARDSHIP. 215 
 
 " Yes. Something about him that I don't think you know ; 
 something that I shall never bear to think of. It will make 
 me miserable as long as I live. Do you know, I was tired of 
 nursing him, and hearing him cry ; and I gave it up — the 
 only thing I could do for him ! I asked Ailwin to take him. 
 And in two days he was dead ; and I could never do any- 
 thing for him any more.'' 
 
 Here a burst of grief stopped her voice. Her brother said, 
 very solemnly, 
 
 " Now, Mildred, listen to me, — to the little I can say, — for 
 you know I cannot, in this place, stay and talk with you as 
 we should both like, and as we might have done at home. 
 I think you were almost always very kind to Geordie; and I 
 am sure he loved you very dearly. But I have heard mother 
 say that the worst part of losing dear friends is that we have 
 to blame ourselves, more or less, for our behaviour to them, — 
 even to those we loved the very most. So I will not flatter 
 you, dear ; though I don't at all wonder at your being tired 
 of hearing Geordie cry that day. I will not say whether you 
 were right or wrong ; but only put you in mind that we may 
 always ask for pardon. Remember, too, that you may meet 
 Geordie again ; and perhaps be kinder to him than we ever 
 are to one another here. — Now I will go, and come back 
 again soon." 
 
 " Stop one minute," implored Mildred. " I dreamed that 
 you all went away fiom this hill, and left me alone." 
 
 As she said this, she looked at her brother, with such a 
 painful wistfulness, that he saw that she had had a fever- 
 
2l6 
 
 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 dream, and was not yet quite clear from its remains. He 
 laughed, as at something ridiculous ; which Mildred seemed 
 to like ; and then he reminded her more gravely, that they 
 could not get away from this place if they would. If an 
 opportunity should occur, he assured her he would not leave 
 
 8 • v ■•«. 
 
 
 '.Ms. 
 
 Me 
 
 
 ROGER IS TAKEN ILL. 
 
 hold of her hand. Nothing should make him step into a boat 
 without her. Poor Mildred had fancied, bewildered as she 
 was this morning, that if Oliver knew of what she had done 
 about George, he would think himself justified in leaving her 
 to perish on the hill ; and yet she could not help telling him. 
 Her mind was relieved, for the present, and she let him go. 
 He found Roger where he first looked for him, — near the 
 
MORE HARDSHIP. 217 
 
 mummy. The poor lad was too ill to stand ; but he lay on 
 the slimy bank, poking and grubbing, with a stick and with 
 his fingers, as deep in the soft soil as he could penetrate. 
 Oliver saw that he had found some more curiosities; — bunches 
 of nuts, nuts which were ripening on the tree many hundreds 
 of seasons ago ; but which no hand had plucked till now. 
 Oliver could neither wonder nor admire, at this moment ; 
 nor was he vexed (as he might have been at another time) at 
 Roger's crawling hither, in pursuit of gain, to be made more 
 ill by every breath he drew while stooping over the rank 
 mud. 
 
 "Don't be afraid, Roger," said Oliver. "I am not going 
 to touch your findings, or meddle with you. I want you to 
 change your clothes, — to put off that finery, — and to let me 
 Know where the bag of money is that you took out of the 
 chest." 
 
 Roger stared. 
 
 "I am going to pack that chest again ; and I want to see 
 everything in it, that it may be ready if any boat should come." 
 
 " Boat !" exclaimed Roger. 
 
 " Yes ; a boat may come, you know ; and we must not 
 detain it, if such a thing should happen. If you die without 
 restoring that money, Roger, it will be a sin upon your soul : 
 so tell me where it is, and have an easy mind, I advise you. 
 That will be a good thing, if you live an hundred years." 
 
 " There is a boat here now ! You are going to leave me 
 behind ! " cried Roger, scrambling up on his feet, and falling 
 again from weakness, two or three times. "I knew it," he 
 
21 8 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 continued ; " I dreamt it all last night ; and it 'is going to 
 come true to day." 
 
 "Mildred dreamed the same thing; and it is because you 
 are both ill," said Oliver. " Lean upon me, — as heavily as 
 you like, — and I will go home with you, as slowly as you will, 
 if you will tell me where the money-bag is. You will find no 
 boat there now, whatever there may be by-and-bye ; but if you 
 will not tell me where the money-bag is, I will shake you off 
 now, and leave you here. It is another person's money, and 
 I must have it.'' 
 
 Roger said he would tell, if Oliver would promise him not 
 to leave him alone on the island. Oliver assured him that 
 there was no danger whatever of the deliverers of some of 
 the party leaving others to perish. He owned that he was 
 bound to make his sister his first care, and Ailwin his next. 
 As boys, Roger and himself must be satisfied to be thought 
 of last ; but he hoped they should neither of them do an ill 
 turn by the other. He asked if Roger had ever received an 
 ill turn from him. 
 
 "That is the thing," said Roger, sorrowfully; "and you 
 have had so many from me and mine ! " 
 
 '■ I am sure I forgive them all, now you have once said 
 that,'' cried Oliver. " I forgive and forget them all ; and so 
 would father, if he heard you.'' 
 
 "No! would he? And he said once that he and his 
 would scorn to be like me and mine." 
 
 " Did you hear him say that ? You used to hear every 
 word we said to one another, I think." 
 
MORE HARDSHIP. 219 
 
 " It was Ail win that threw that in my teeth." 
 
 " Father would not say so now — never, after you had had 
 Geordie on your knees, and made him fond of you, as you 
 did." 
 
 " Do you really think so ? " 
 
 " I am almost sure of it. But he could not help thinking 
 badly of you if you keep that money." 
 
 " I am not going to keep it. Do you go and find it, if 
 you like, for I can't. It is in a hollow elm that stands between 
 two beeches, on the other side of the wood. There is a little 
 cross cut in the bark, on the south side — that will help you 
 to find it. But don't you go till you have got me to the tent." 
 
 Oliver helped him home, amidst lightning and splashing 
 rain, explaining as they went why the tent was down, but 
 thinking it best to say nothing of the boat to one so weak- 
 spirited as Roger was now. He then ran off, and found the 
 money-bag. He wished the weather would clear, that he 
 might look out again ; but, meanwhile, he felt that he was 
 not losing time in collecting together all the. goods that were 
 on the hill, for the tempest so darkened and filled the air 
 that he knew he could not have seen a furlong into the 
 distance, if he had been on his perch at this moment. He 
 wore his mother's watch in his pocket, feeling as if it pro- 
 mised that he should meet her again, to put it back into her 
 hands. 
 
 "Now, Oliver," said Ailwin, "I am vexed with you that you 
 did not sleep while you might, before this growling, splashing 
 weather came on, and while there was something of a shelter 
 
THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 over your head. If you don't go to sleep the minute this 
 tempest is over, I must see what I must do to you, for you 
 will be having the fever else, and then what is to become ot 
 me among you all, I should like to know ? I wish you would 
 creep in now between the mattresses under the tree, and 
 never think of the storm, but go to sleep like a good boy. It 
 is hardly likely that the lightning should strike that particu- 
 lar tree, just while you are under it. 
 
 "But if you should chance to find me a cinder, when you 
 thought it time for me to be waking, Ailwin, would not that 
 be as bad as my having the fever ? " 
 
 " Oliver ! How can you talk so ? How dare you think 
 of such a shocking thing ? " 
 
 "You put it into my head, Ailwin. But come, let me tell 
 you a thing I want you to do, if I should be away when it 
 stops raining. Here are Roger's old clothes, safe and dry 
 here between the beds. When it leaves off raining, make 
 him pull off his wet finery, and put on his own dry things. 
 And keep that finery somewhere out of his way, that I may 
 put it back into the chest, where it ought to be lying now. 
 Will you do this, Ailwin ? " 
 
 " Why, I '11 see. If I was quite sure that he had nothing 
 to do with this storm, I might manage him as I could any 
 other boy." 
 
 " Anybody may manage him to-day with a little kindness. 
 He is ill and weak-spirited, and you can touch his heart with 
 a word. If you only remember how George cried after him, 
 you will be gentle with him, I know." 
 
MORE HARDSHIP. 
 
 " Well, that 's true ; and I doubt whether a lord would 
 have spoken with him, if he had been so dangerous as he 
 seems sometimes. Now, as to dinner to-day, Oliver. I really 
 don't like to give Mildred such food as the game on the 
 island now is. I am sure it is downright unwholesome. 
 Bird and beast, they are all dying off faster than we can kill 
 them." 
 
 " The fowls are not all done, I hope. I thought we had 
 some meal-fed fowls left." 
 
 "Just two, and that is all; and the truth is, I don't like 
 to part those two poor things, enjoying the meal-picking 
 together ; and then, they are the last of our wholesome food." 
 
 " Then let us have them while they are wholesome. Boil 
 one to-day, and make the broth as nice as you can for 
 Mildred. We will cook the other to-morrow." 
 
 " And what next day ? " 
 
 " We will see to that when the day comes. Oh, dear, when 
 will these clouds have emptied themselves? Surely they 
 cannot pour down at this rate long.'' 
 
 " The thunder and lightning are just over, and that 's a 
 comfort," said Ailwin. " You might stand under any tree 
 now, Oliver, and you go wandering about, as if you were a 
 duck in your heart, and loved the rain. 1 ' 
 
 Ailwin might wonder, for Oliver was indeed very restless. 
 While waiting the moment when he might again cross to the 
 staircase, he could not even stand still under a tree. The 
 secret of his having seen the boat was too heavy a one to be 
 borne when he was no longer busy. He felt that he should 
 
22"* 
 
 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 tell, if he remained beside his sister and Ailwin ; so he wan- 
 dered off, through the wood, to try how far he could see 
 over the waters to the south, now that the tempest was 
 passing away. 
 
 Through the trees he saw some one — a tall person — walk- 
 ing on the grass by the water-side. He ran — he flew. There 
 was a boat lying against the bank, and two or three men 
 walking tpwards the wood. The foremost was Pastor Dendel. 
 Oliver sprang into his arms, clung round his neck for a 
 moment, and then fainted away. 
 
 RESCUE AT LAST. 
 
CHAPTER XII, 
 
 NEWS. 
 
 Oliver soon recovered. The strong, manly caress of the 
 pastor seemed to revive him, even more than the water the 
 others threw on his face. His first word was "mother." 
 
 "She is safe, my boy, and she will be well when I take 
 you to her. Are you alone here, Oliver ? " 
 
 "Alone! Oh, no! Don't let these men go and startle 
 Mildred and the rest " 
 
 " Thank God ! " exclaimed Pastor Dendel. 
 
 The two men who were with him seemed about to raise a 
 shout, and wave their hats, but the pastor forbade them by a 
 gesture. He whispered to Oliver, 
 
 "Mildred, and who else, my dear? We know nothing, 
 you are aware. Your father " 
 
 " He was carried off in the mill — out to the Humber— — " 
 
 Oliver stopped, as he saw the men exchange a look of awe, 
 which took his breath away again. 
 
 223 
 
224 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 " We have something like news of your father, too^Oliver. 
 There is a rumour which makes us hope that he is safe at a 
 distance. Your mother believes it, as she will tell you. Is 
 it possible that you are all alive, after such a calamity as 
 this?" 
 
 " George is dead, sir. We buried him yesterday. Ailwin 
 is here, with Mildred and me, and Roger Redfurn." 
 
 One of the men observed that he had hoped, as one good 
 that would come of the flood, that the Levels were rid of the 
 Redfurns. 
 
 " Do not say that," said Oliver. " Roger has helped us in 
 many things, and he was kind to little George. Let me go, 
 sir. I can walk now very well ; and I want to tell them that 
 you are come." 
 
 " Go, my boy ; but do it gently, Oliver — gently." 
 
 " That is what I want, sir — that they should not see or hear 
 you ; for Mildred is ill, and Roger too. Please keep out ot 
 sight till I come for you. So mother is safe — really ? " 
 
 " Really, and we will take you all to her." 
 
 Mildred, lying uncomfortably in the soaked cloth (for the 
 rain had penetrated everything), was yet dozing — now and 
 then starting and calling out. Oliver took her hand to wake 
 her up, and asked her, with a smile, as she opened her eyes, 
 whether she was dreaming of a boat again. Mildred believed 
 not, but her head was sadly confused ; so much so, that she 
 heard of the boat which had really come, and the pastor, and 
 her parents, without showing any surprise or pleasure. Little 
 ceremony was necessary with the strong Ailwin ; and one ot 
 
NEWS. 225 
 
 the men made short work with Roger, by lifting him and 
 carrying him into the boat. Oliver said a word to the pastor 
 about seeing George's grave, and about the chest and the 
 money-bag, which belonged to somebody who might want 
 them much. The pastor took charge of the bag ; but declared 
 that everything else must be left for another trip, at a more 
 leisure time. Mrs. Linacre was waiting — and in what a state 
 of expectation ! 
 
 While the two stout rowers were pulling rapidly away from 
 the Red-hill, and in the direction of Gainsborough, the 
 pastor explained to the party what they mcst wanted to 
 know. 
 
 Mrs. Linacre had heard some rumour which alarmed her 
 on the day of the flood, and had locked up her shed, and set 
 out homewards, when the waters gushed over her road, and 
 compelled her to turn back. Like a multitude of others, as 
 anxious and miserable as herself, she had ever since been 
 wandering about in search of a boat, and imploring aid from 
 every one she met. 
 
 For three days, it appeared as if there really were no boats 
 in all the district. Some had certainly been swamped and 
 broken by the rush of the flood ; and there was great diffi- 
 culty in bringing round from the coast such as could there be 
 had from the fishermen. Some farmers on the hill had lent 
 their oxen to bring boats over the hills, and others men to 
 row them ; and this was in time to save many lives. What 
 number had been lost, it was impossible yet to say ; but the 
 cleverness and the hopefulness with which a multitude had 
 
 15 
 
226 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 struggled for life during five days of hardship and peril were 
 wonderful and admirable. Mrs. Linacre had trusted in the 
 power which God gives His children in such extremity, and. 
 had been persuaded throughout (except during short moments 
 of despair) that she should see her husband and children 
 again. In this persuasion she had been sustained by the 
 pastor from the moment of his finding her, after his own 
 escape. 
 
 .Of his own escape the pastor would say nothing at present. 
 The children's minds were too full now for such tales of 
 wonder and of horror as they must hear hereafter. Neither 
 would he permit a word on the origin of the flood. He 
 said they must think as little as they could of the wicked 
 deeds of men, in this hour of God's mercy. One prayer in 
 every heart that God would forgive all evil-minded men — 
 one such prayer let there be ; and then no more disturbing 
 thoughts of enemies in the hour of preservation. 
 
 Oliver could not trust himself to ask, in the presence of 
 strangers, what the rumour was which the pastor had men- 
 tioned about his father. The pastor was very apt to under- 
 stand what was stirring in people's hearts, and he knew Oliver's 
 at this moment. He explained to him that a sailor had de- 
 clared, on landing at Hull, that the ship in which he was 
 had spoken with a Dutch vessel off the Humber, in the night, 
 by the light of lanterns only, when a voice was heard as if 
 from the deck of the Dutchman, crying out, " Will some one 
 have the charity to tell the wife of Linacre of the Levels 
 that he is saved ? " The sailors had some fears about this 
 
NEWS. 
 
 227 
 
 voice — thought the message odd — fancied the voice was 
 like what they should suppose a ghost's to be ; and at length 
 persuaded one another that it came not from any ship, but 
 from the air overhead, and that the message meant that 
 Linacre was dead, and that his soul was saved. When they 
 came ashore, however, and found what had befallen the 
 Levels, they began to doubt whether it was not, after all, the 
 voice of a flesh and blood man that had called out to them. 
 When the pastor now heard how the miller was floated off in 
 his mill, he had little doubt of the good man having been 
 picked up in the Humber, by a vessel sailing for Holland 
 which could not stop to set him ashore, but which now con- 
 tained him safe and well. 
 
 Within two months he would be heard of or seen, it 
 might fairly be hoped. 
 
 Mrs. Linacre was kindly taken care of in a farmhouse near 
 the spring — that farmhouse where she had often taken her 
 copper money to be changed for silver ; but she had been 
 little within doors, day or night. She had paced all day by 
 the brink of the flood, and as long as the moon was up, had 
 sat at night on a rising ground, looking over the waters 
 towards the Red hill. She had discovered that the mill 
 was gone, when other eyes could distinguish nothing so far 
 off. No one had a glass to lend her — so, at least, it was 
 said; but some whispered that a glass might have been 
 procured, but that it was thought she could see only what 
 would distress her, and nothing that could do her any 
 good. 
 
 15—2 
 
228 THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 She was on the brink of the water when the boat came 
 near. She would have thrown herself in to meet her children 
 if a neighbour had not been there to hold her back. 
 
 Oliver's first words to her were, that he believed his father 
 was safe on his way to Holland, and would soon be coming 
 back. The pastor's first words were, as he placed Mildred 
 in her arms — 
 
 " Two children are here restored to you. Will you not 
 patiently resign your other little one ? " 
 
 The speechless mother was hurrying away, with Mildred 
 on her bosom, and drawing Oliver by the hand, which she 
 clasped convulsively, when he said, 
 
 " Mother, help me to keep a promise I have made. Here 
 is Roger Redfurn — very ill. I promised we would not for- 
 sake him. Let him go with us, till he is well." 
 
 " Whatever you will, my boy; but do not leave me, Oliver, 
 — not for a moment." 
 
 "Go on,'' said the pastor. "We are bringing Roger 
 after you. We shall be at home as soon as you." 
 
 "Home," was the friendly farmhouse. There, before the 
 end of the day, had Oliver learned that his morning signal 
 had been seen from the large boat ; and that the reason why 
 the large boat had rowed away was, not only that it was full, 
 but that the waters were now too shallow about the Red-hill 
 for any but small craft. Before the end of the day Mrs. 
 Linacre had been seen to look like herself once more ; and 
 Ailwin had told to the wondering neighbours the tale of the 
 
NEWS. 
 
 229 
 
 few days, which seemed now like years to look back upon. 
 She told more than even Oliver had observed of the miserable 
 state of their place of refuge, which would soon have been a 
 
 UNITED ONCE MOEE. 
 
 place of death. Scarcely a breathing thing, she said, was 
 left alive : and in going to the boat, she had seen the soaked 
 bee-hives upset, and chilled bees lying about, as if there 
 was no spirit left in them. She shuddered when she thought 
 
2 3 o THE SETTLERS AT HOME. 
 
 of the Red-hill. Then she stimulated the farmhouse people 
 to take care of Roger, — a task in which Oliver left them 
 little to do. They were willing enough, however ; for Ailwin 
 told them that though Roger had been an odd boy in his 
 time, owing to his having been brought up by queer 
 people, yet, considering that those people were drowned 
 and gone, and that Roger had been noticed by a lord, 
 she did not doubt he might turn out well, if it so pleased 
 God. 
 
 How closely did Mildred clasp her mother's neck that 
 evening ! Knowing nothing else, and feeling very strangely, 
 she yet understood that she was in a place of shelter and 
 comfort, and felt that her head rested on her mother's 
 bosom — on that pillow which has something so far better 
 than all warmth and softness. By degrees she began to be 
 aware that there was cool and fresh water, and sweet-smelling 
 flowers, and that she \v?.s tenderly bathed, and laid to rest 
 on a bed which was neither wet nor under a tree. There 
 was a surprising silence all round her, she felt, as she grew 
 stronger, which no one yet attempted to explain to her; but 
 her mother smiled at her so happily, that she supposed she 
 was recovering. 
 
 Mrs. Linacre did look happy, even in the midst of her 
 tears for her poor baby. Mildred was recovering, Oliver 
 ate and slept, and whistled under the window — like a light- 
 hearted boy, as he once again amused himself with carving 
 every piece of hard wood he could find. It was clear that 
 
NEWS. 
 
 231 
 
 he had escaped the fever ; and every day that refreshed his 
 colour, and filled out his thin face again, brought nearer the 
 hour of his father's return. 
 
 Printed by Cowan if Co. , Limited, Perth. 
 
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