came on him so strong that his
hoose began to slup away, he took two of his oxen an' he tied them
together wi' ropes, an' put planks on their backs, which he also tied;
ay! an' so he made a sort of livin' stage, on which he sat his wife and
four children; two of them wass poys and the other two wass girls,
whatever. The frightened craters went about the best way they could,
sometimes wadin' an' sometimes sweemin', an' Shon, he wass leadin' them
wi' a line roond their horns, an' he wass wadin' an' sweemin' also. I
came across them wi' my post an' took them in. That was just pefore we
saw the hoose on fire floatin' down the river."

"The house on fire!" exclaimed Cora; "I did not hear of that."

"No wonder," said Lambert. "There have been so many strange incidents
and hairbreadth escapes during the flood that we won't likely hear about
them all for many a day to come."

"But what about the house on fire?" asked Victor; "was any one in it?"

"No, it was only a house that had been left somewhat hastily by its
owners, who must have forgot to put out the fire or capsized something
over it. At all events the house was seen floating down stream at
night, and a splendid sight it was, burning furiously, with the flames
glittering in the water that swept it away."

"How sad!" said Elsie, whose mind dwelt on the evil rather than on the
picturesque aspect of the incident.

"I can't imagine what ever was the cause of the flood," remarked Mrs
Ravenshaw.

"Well, my dear," said her husband, in a somewhat oracular tone, "no one
can certainly tell what caused it, but my own opinion is that it was
caused by the unusual wetness of the fall. You remember how it rained;
well, when the lakes and rivers were as full as they could hold, and the
ground was soaking like a full sponge, the winter came on us suddenly
and set all fast, thus preventing the water getting away. Then came the
snow, also unusually heavy. Then came a late spring with a sudden burst
of warm weather, and a south wind for several days in succession,
turning all this accumulation into water. Red Lake, Otter-tail Lake,
and Lake Travers overflowed, as you know; the Red River ice burst up and
jammed against the solid ice of Lake Winnipeg, which stopped the
current, and thus caused the overflow. That's _my_ notion about the
flood. Whether it's right or no, who can tell?"

"Your observations, sir, are fery goot, whatever," said Angus, taking an
unusually long dr