fs," cried Pierce, who, with Tom, had darted on ahead;
"hurrah! hurrah!"

He was right, and in a short time we reached the isthmus. We expected
to find the garden, at all events, destroyed and everything uprooted.
The water had indeed washed over the greater part of the peninsula, and
had filled a trench dug round the garden, but could scarcely have done
more than just cover the ground. It had entered the cottages, which
were a little lower down; but it had risen but a few inches, and
everything was in its place. Even in the storeroom, the articles alone
which were on the lower tier had got wet. The boat was also secure,
with her cargo undamaged. We had, indeed, reason to be grateful to
Providence, that the waters had been arrested at the moment when they
might have destroyed everything in the settlement.

We had to wait some time for breakfast--till the wood we could collect
was dry enough to light a fire; and in the interval we employed
ourselves in cleaning out the floors of the houses, which were covered
with slime. Our narrow escape, however, made my father determine not to
wait beyond the expiration of the four months, should a vessel from
Sydney not appear to carry us off.

By puffing and blowing Paddy at last succeeded in kindling a fire, when
our tea-kettle was boiled and we had breakfast.

Soon afterwards I was looking with a spy-glass towards the coast on the
opposite side of the river, from which direction a gentle breeze blowing
wafted a far from pleasant odour towards us, when I observed a large
dark object lying on the beach. On looking at it with my naked eye, I
had till then supposed that it was a rock--though I could not help
fancying that no rock had formerly been there. I now discovered that it
was a huge dead whale, which, partly decomposed, had been thrown up by
the waves during the night. It was likely to prove anything but an
agreeable neighbour, however, and would certainly become worse and
worse.

I pointed it out to Mudge and the rest. "We must hope that the wind
will change before long, or even at the distance it is off it will drive
us away from this," said Mudge.

A number of sea-birds were already hovering over the carcass, showing
that they had scented it from afar. Though the smell was unpleasant,
still I was anxious to have a nearer view of the monster; so Mudge,
Harry, Tommy, and I agreed to go over.

Having taken the things out of the boat, we pulled across the rive