e are standing to our ankles.
In a few minutes we shall be standing to our knees. Look at it. Do you
hear the roaring and the wash outside? Kaskaskia is under water, and the
people have to climb to the roofs."

The aged woman always listened incredulously to Peggy. She now craned
over the side of the bed, and examined for herself streams like
quicksilver slipping along the dark boards.

"Why did you not do something to prevent this, instead of coming in here
to break my rest?" she inquired.

Captain Saucier extended his hands to lift her, but she lay down again,
holding the whip bolt upright.

"If I go to the attic, Captain Saucier, my bed goes with me."

"There is not time to move it."

"And there is such a beautiful bed up there, quite ready, with all your
cushions."

"My bed goes with me," repeated tante-gra'mere.

"There will soon be water enough to carry it," remarked Peggy, "if it
will float."

Waves crashing across the gallery broke against tante-gra'mere's closed
shutters and spurted between the sashes. This freak of the storm
devastating Kaskaskia she regarded with sidelong scrutiny, such as a
crow gives to the dubious figure set to frighten it. The majesty of the
terror which was abroad drove back into their littleness those sticks
and pieces of cloth which she had valued so long. Again came the crash
of water, and this time the shutters bowed themselves and a sash blew
in, and the Mississippi burst into the room.

The candles were out, but Captain Saucier had caught up his relative as
the water struck. Angelique groped for her mother, and she and Peggy led
that dazed woman through the hall, laughing at their own shudders and
splashes, and Captain Saucier waded after them. So the last vestige of
human life forsook this home, taking to the shelter of the attic; and
ripples drove into the fireplaces and frothed at the wainscots.

The jangling of the bells, to which the family had scarcely listened in
their nearer tumult and frantic haste, became very distinct in the
attic. So did the wind which was driving that foaming sea. All the
windows were closed, but moisture was blown through the tiniest
crevices. There were two rooms in the attic. In the first one the slaves
huddled among piles of furniture. The west room held the children's
pallets and tante-gra'mere's lowly substitute for her leviathan bed. She
sat up among pillows, blinking resentfully. Angelique at once had a pair
of bedroom screens bro