n brought Mildred in the same
way. Mildred wanted to be of use below; but her brother told her the
best thing she could do was to watch and amuse George, and to stand
ready to receive the things saved from the chambers,--she not being tall
enough to do any service in four feet of water.

It was a strange forlorn feeling to Mildred,--the being left on the
house-top in the cold grey morning, at an hour when she had always
hitherto been asleep in bed. The world itself, as she looked round her,
seemed unlike the one she had hitherto lived in. The stars were in the
sky; but they were dim,--fading before the light of morning. There were
no fields, no gardens, no roads to be seen;--only grey water, far away
on every side. She could see nothing beyond this grey water, except
towards the east, where a line of low hills stood between her and the
brightening sky. Poor Mildred felt dizzy, with so much moving water
before her eyes, and in her ears the sound of the current below. The
house shook and trembled, too, under the force of the flood: so that she
was glad to fix her sight on the steady line of the distant hills. She
spoke to George occasionally, to keep him quiet; and she was ready to
receive every article that was handed up the stairs from below: but, in
all the intervals, she fixed her eyes on the distant hills. She thought
how easy it would be to reach that ridge, if she were a bird; and how
hard it would be to pine away on this house-top, or to sink to death in
these waters, for want of the wings which inferior creatures had. Then
she thought of superior creatures that had wings too: and she longed to
be an angel. She longed to be out of all this trouble and fear; and
considered that it would be worth while to be drowned, to be as free as
a bird or an angel. She resolved to remember this, and not to be
frightened, if the water should rise and rise, till it should sweep her
quite away. She thought that this might have befallen her mother
yesterday. No boat had been seen on the waters in the direction of
Gainsborough; no sign had reached the family that any one was thinking
of them at a distance, and trying to save them: and Oliver and Mildred
had agreed that it was likely that Mrs Linacre had heard some report of
the pulling up of the sluices, and might have been on her way home when
the flood overtook and drowned her. If so, she might be now an angel.
If an angel, Mildred was sure her first thought would be