none of us would have allowed ourselves to cry as we sat there on
the roof waiting to be drowned. We'll never forget this experience,
will we, Bessie?"

"I should say not," came the prompt answer; "and the boys have done
themselves proud through it all. Just to think of their being on that
bridge when it fell into the flood, and none of them even thrown into
the river. I never heard of such great good fortune. And then to be
taken straight to where we were hoping and praying for some one to come
along and save us. Well, after this I'm not going to be so silly as to
doubt it any longer."

"What?" asked Steve, quickly, but in a low voice.

"Oh! just that there must be a sweet little cherub aloft watching over
me," she replied, giving him a saucy look.

"I thought you might mean that it was wicked for people to quarrel, and
that it never could happen again between two persons that I know,"
Steve went on to say.

"Well, perhaps I did mean that too; but no matter, I've seen a great
light, and sitting there on that terrible roof so many hours was a good
thing for me, Steve. I'm never going to be such a spitfire again; and
I'll never condemn anybody unheard, I give you my word. But what's the
matter with you, Bessie; you are shaking like a leaf. I hope you
haven't taken cold."

"No, it isn't that, Mazie," replied the other Carson girl; "but listen
to the horrid wolves up there on the hill; and it seems to give me a
bad feeling when I get to thinking of what would happen if they should
come down here and attack us, when we haven't a single gun to defend
ourselves with."

Bandy-legs started chuckling.

"Wolves don't yelp like that, Bessie," he remarked; "what you hear is a
pack of wild dogs hunting something to eat. Since the water got so
high, like as not they haven't had their meals as regular as they'd
like, since lots of places are flooded out; so they've got together,
and are rampaging around in search of grub. They do seem to be making
a regular circus up there; and Max, I believe they're workin' down this
way."

"Oh! dear! then this camping out isn't such great sport as it seemed!"
cried pretty Bessie French, looking appealingly toward Steve, as though
she expected him as her knight to stand between should any danger
threaten.

"I was thinking that myself, Bandy-legs," Max admitted; "it may be that
their keen scent has gotten wind of the smell from our cooking supper
at last, and started them this