several days of rain, the James and other rivers rose very suddenly,
and caused great destruction of life and property, carrying away houses,
bridges, crops, and cattle, and covering large sections of the country
with water.

There were no lives lost where the flood came during daylight, though many
families lost food, clothing, and their homes; but where the sudden rage
of the waters burst forth at night, many people were swept away and
drowned.

Some one saw among the poor animals struggling with the waters, a poor,
frightened little rabbit, on a plank, running from side to side, as it
tossed and pitched up and down on the waves.

A queer instance of characteristic nature in an animal is worth
recording, although the creature could scarcely be considered a sufferer
from the flood. One man, whose house was swept away and lodged on an
embankment lower down, had a pet hog, whose dwelling had been under the
house. Of course the man imagined him drowned, as no one had thought of
him in the haste of the flight. The day after, when the fury of the waters
was somewhat spent, the man and his son paddled out to the house to see if
anything had escaped. On going in through the upstairs window, they found
that the hog had coolly walked in and up the stairs, and, selecting a
feather-bed, was now reclining very comfortably in the very middle of it,
entirely unhurt!

But only this gentleman of ease and the wreckers profited by the great
flood. To others it came like a cruel and stealthy foe, sweeping all
before its merciless rush. One little girl, two years old, snatched from
her bed and barely saved, said the next day, with a little face still
sunshiny, as she pointed to their roof, just seen, with the upper windows
above the waters: "Dess see! The flood came, and it dess took
everysing--dollies and all!" M.

* * *

SEVERAL correspondents write kindly correcting an error in the February
"Letter-Box," page 301, in the item about "King Alfred and the Cakes." It
was "Prince William, son of Henry I.," not "of Henry II.," who was
drowned.

* * *

Athens, Ohio.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Reading what Jack said in February about the little
birds being killed by flying against the telegraph wires, I thought I
would write and say that we often pick them up. They look soft and pretty,
as if they were asle