lways made fun so; or Archy Hawkins, that
pretended to be so good-natured; or Pony Baker, that seemed to like a
fellow so much? He began to call for them by name: "Hen Billard--_O_
Hen! Help, help! Archy Hawkins--_O_ Archy! I'm drowning! Pony, Pony--_O_
Pony! Don't you _see_ me, Pony?"

He could see the top of Pony Baker's house, and he thought what a good,
kind man Pony's father was. Surely _he_ would try to save him; and Jim
Leonard began to yell: "O Mr. Baker! Look here, Mr. Baker! It's Jim
Leonard, and I'm floating down the river on a roof! Save me, Mr. Baker,
save me! Help, help, somebody! Fire! Fire! Fire! Murder! Fire!"

By this time he was about crazy, and did not half know what he was
saying. Just in front of where Hen Billard's grandmother lived, on the
street that ran along the top of the bank, the roof got caught in the
branches of a tree which had drifted down and stuck in the bottom of the
river so that the branches waved up and down as the current swashed
through them. Jim Leonard was glad of anything that would stop the roof,
and at first he thought he would get off on the tree. That was what the
rat did. Perhaps the rat thought Jim Leonard really was crazy and he had
better let him have the roof to himself; but the rat saw that he had
made a mistake, and he jumped back again after he had swung up and down
on a limb two or three times. Jim Leonard felt awfully when the rat
first got into the tree, for he remembered how it said in the Pirate
Book that rats always leave a sinking ship, and now he believed that he
certainly was gone. But that only made him hollo the louder, and he
holloed so loud that at last he made somebody hear.

It was Hen Billard's grandmother, and she put her head out of the window
with her nightcap on, to see what the matter was. Jim Leonard caught
sight of her, and he screamed: "Fire, fire, fire! I'm drownding, Mrs.
Billard! Oh, do somebody come!"

Hen Billard's grandmother just gave one yell of "Fire! The world's
a-burnin' up, Hen Billard, and you layin' there sleepin' and not helpin'
a bit! Somebody's out there in the river!" and she rushed into the room
where Hen was, and shook him.

He bounced out of bed and pulled on his pantaloons, and was down-stairs
in a minute. He ran bareheaded over to the bank, and when Jim Leonard
saw him coming he holloed ten times as loud: "It's me, Hen! It's Jim
Leonard! Oh, do get somebody to come out and save me! Fire!"

As soon as Hen heard t