er of the house, and rowed away.

A dark shadow falling over him at the moment caused him to turn round,
and there, to his amazement, stood one of his father's largest barns!
It had been floated, like many other houses, from its foundation, and,
having been caught by a diverging current, had been stranded on the lawn
at the side of Mr Ravenshaw's house so as to completely shut out the
view in that direction.

Intense amusement followed Ian's feeling of surprise. His first impulse
was to return and let the inmates of Willow Creek know what had
occurred; but be thinking himself that they would find it out the first
time they chanced to look from the windows on that side of the house,
and observing that the day was advancing, he changed his mind and rowed
away in the direction of the plains, chuckling heartily as he meditated
on the very peculiar alterations which the flood had effected on the
properties of his father and Samuel Ravenshaw, to say nothing of the
probable result in regard to his own future.

A stiffish breeze sprang up soon after he left. Being a fair wind, he
set up a rag of sail that fortunately chanced to be in the punt, and
advanced swiftly on his voyage to the Little Mountain.

On their way to the same place, at an earlier part of the day, Victor
and Tony, with Petawanaquat and Meekeye, touched at the mission station.
Many of the people were still on the stage, but Mrs Cockran, finding
that the water had almost ceased to rise, and that the parsonage still
stood fast, returned to the garret of her old home. Here she received
Victor and the recovered Tony with great delight. It chanced to be
about the period which Tony styled feeding-time, so that, although
Victor was anxious to reach his father as soon as possible, he agreed to
remain there for an hour or so. While they were enjoying the
hospitality of the garret, Petawanaquat was entertained in a
comparatively quiet corner of the stage, by a youth named Sinclair, a
Scotch half-breed, who had been a pupil in Ian Macdonald's school, and,
latterly, an assistant.

Petawanaquat had made the acquaintance of young Sinclair on his first
visit to Red River. They were kindred spirits. Both were earnest men,
intensely desirous of finding out truth--truth in regard to everything
that came under their notice, but especially in reference to God and
religion. This grave, thoughtful disposition and earnest longing is by
no means confined to men of refineme