ong past Maria Jane's bedtime, I'm sure."

"Come right along with me," answered Mrs. Noah kindly.

"Good night, all," said Marjorie, following Mrs. Noah into the Ark.

"You shall sleep in the room next to mine," said Mrs. Noah, turning to the
little girl with a smile as she led the way into a pretty bedroom. "Would
you like me to unfasten your dress for you?"

"I think I can manage that," replied Marjorie, "but if you wouldn't mind,
I'd like to have you wait and tuck me in bed after I've said my prayers. I
can't very well tuck in the sheets at the side after I'm once in."

So good, kind, motherly Mrs. Noah tucked in the little girl and kissed her
good night, and in a few minutes she was fast asleep, with her arms
tightly clasped around her rag doll, Maria Jane.

[Illustration: Ham is sent to the "brig" for chasing the pigs around the
deck.]

COCK-A-DOODLE-DO

"Cock-a-Doodle-Do,
My Master's lost a shoe,
But what's the use of an excuse
A rubber boot'll do."

Marjorie leaped out of bed and ran over to the window to see where the Ark
had drifted during the night.

To her surprise it was aground on the roof of a big barn.

And, goodness me! Didn't the weathercock look handsome, with his gilt
feathers shining brightly in the rays of the morning sun as he turned to
and fro with every little change of wind.

"Good morning," said Marjorie. "Isn't it a beautiful day?"

"I don't feel sure about anything," replied the weathercock. "I used to be
a jolly weathercock, but now, with all this water around, I feel more like
a lighthouse."

"Then why didn't you warn us off the reef--I mean the roof?" asked
Marjorie.

"I did, but everybody was asleep and paid no attention to me."

And just then the wind came in a sudden gust and the weathercock flew
around to face it.

"Goodness," he cried, "I believe it's going to rain again."

"Ahoy, there," shouted Capt. Noah from the deck below, "tell that gilt
rooster I'm going to shove off. If he wants to come aboard he'd better be
quick about it."

"Would you like to come with us?" asked Marjorie. "I'd like to have you. I
once read about a very nice weathercock in 'Old Mother Goose.'"

"Thank you, I think I will," replied the weathercock, hopping nimbly on to
the flagpole of the Ark. "I shall feel more at home here now that the
green meadows have turned into an ocean. A barn is no place for a rooster
when the water is above the hayloft."

Marjorie