tself, uninvited, in the cupboard. It received
Miss Trim with a croak of indignation and a flutter. Starting back with
a slight, "Oh!" the poor lady fell; and who shall adequately describe,
or even imagine, the effects of that fall? Many a time had Miss Trim
descended that stair and passage on her feet, but never until then had
she done so on her back, like a mermaid or a seal! Coming to the
surface immediately, she filled the house with a yell that almost choked
the hearers, caused old Ravenshaw to heave the pemmican curry into the
lap of Lambert, and induced Lambert himself to leap down-stairs to the
rescue like a harlequin. The bold youth had to swim for it! A gurgle
at the far end of the passage told where Miss Trim was going down, like
wedding announcements, for the third and last time. Lambert went in
like an otter, caught the lady in his arms, and bore her to the
staircase, and thence to the upper floor in a few minutes. She was at
once taken to the sisters' bedroom, and there restored to life and
lamentation.

"My dear," said Mr Ravenshaw to his wife when she appeared, "you'd
better look after our breakfast--I've made a mess of it, and I'll go
over to Angus Macdonald and invite him and his household to come and
stay with us. Their house must be almost afloat by this time."

The old gentleman hailed Peegwish, who was outside in the canoe at the
moment.

That would-be brewer at once made for the house, paddled his canoe
through the doorway and up the passage to the staircase, where Wildcat,
who managed the bow paddle, held on by the bannister while Mr Ravenshaw
embarked. Reissuing from the doorway, they made for their neighbour's
residence.

Macdonald's house had indeed become almost uninhabitable. It stood so
deep in the water that only the upper windows were visible. The
chimneys and roofs of some of the outhouses formed, with the main
building and a few tree-tops, a small Archipelago.

"You are fery kind, Mr Ruvnshaw," said Angus from an upper window,
beneath which the canoe floated. "It iss not improbaple that my house
will pe goin' down the river like a post, but that iss nothing--not
anything at all--when there will pe such a destruction goin' on all over
the settlement whatever. It iss fery coot of you, oo ay. I will put my
fuddle into the canoe, an' my sister she will pe ready at wance.--Wass
you ready, Martha?"

A voice from the interior intimated that Miss Martha would be, "ready in