Pete, "we's too far below the line, ain't never
heard of sech a thing down here."

At four o'clock King came in to say he was going to town. "It's down
to thirty-four," he told his father. "I'm going in and telegraph up
the river for reports."

"And what then, son?" asked the Captain. "What can you do?"

It was a hitherto unexperienced danger threatening Aden. But youth
cannot sit and wait. Alexina, from the window in Charlotte's room, saw
King William fling himself on his horse at the gate and gallop off.
The wind had ceased. The live-oaks on either side of the old iron gate
stood motionless, their moss hanging in dreary, sombre lengths. There
was no sound of bird or insect. And it was cold--cold. Alexina had a
jacket over her woollen dress, for Aden houses are not built for cold,
which poured in at casements, beneath doors, at keyholes. Molly, on
the couch drawn up to the fire, coughed and coughed again. Alexina
went to her. "I'm cold," she complained; "and how dreary it is."

It had cleared and the sky was a pale, chilly blue. The sun set in a
yellow pallor. The night fell.

King came in and warmed his hands at the parlour fire. Alexina and
Charlotte had come down now.

"Thirty-two," he told his father, "and falling."

Neither the Captain nor his son ate much supper, but near-sighted
Charlotte, absorbed in things at hand, seemed unconscious of anything
more amiss than discomfort from the cold. After supper the son
disappeared.

Molly was coughing sadly. They had moved her bed across to Willy's
sitting-room, and a fire crackled on the stone hearth; but it was to
be one of the nights when she would not sleep, or but fitfully, and
when Celeste and Alexina would not sleep either. At nine o'clock they
persuaded her to bed.

"But talk, Malise, you and mammy talk. I don't have chance to think
when people keep on talking; and, mammy, rub my hands; it helps, to
have some one rub them."

At ten she wanted a drink of water. Alexina went to the window where
she had set a tumbler outside. The night was still and clear, the
stars glittering. The moon would rise soon now. How large the grove
showed itself from this south window, stretching away to the southwest
around the curving shores of Nancy. As Alexina opened the window she
shivered, despite the heavy wool of her white wrapper. As she took in
the glass--was it? Yes, over the surface of the water radiated a
ferny, splintery film, which was ice.

Molly, feverish