wned in the carr. They have nothing to do with Roger, or the
plagues of Egypt, Mildred. Don't believe a word of it."

"Then I wish Ailwin would not say such things," replied Mildred.

Ailwin persisted that time would show what Roger was--to which they all
agreed. Oliver observed that meanwhile Ailwin, who was the oldest
person among them, should not try to frighten a little girl, who was the
youngest of all, except George. Ailwin said she should keep her own
thoughts; though, to be sure, she need not always say what they were to
everybody.

"About this cow," thought Oliver, aloud. "We must plan some way to feed
her."

"Take care!" exclaimed Mildred, as he began to descend the stairs. But
the words were scarcely out of her mouth when her brother called to her
that the water had sunk. She ran to see, and saw, with her own eyes,
that the water did not quite come up to the wet mark it had left on the
wall of the stairs. Ailwin thought but little of it--it was such a
trifle; and Oliver allowed that it might be a mere accident, arising
from the flood having found some new vent about the house; but still,
the water had sunk; and that was a sight full of hope.

"Have you heard the cow low, Roger?" asked Oliver.

"Yes, to be sure. She may well low; for she must be hungry enough."

"And wet and cold enough, too, poor thing! I am going to see whether, I
can find out exactly where she is, and whether we cannot do something
for her."

Ailwin called down-stairs to Oliver, to say that there was a washtub
floating about in the room they had slept in. If he could find it, he
might row himself about in that, in the chambers, instead of always
wading in the water, catching his death of cold.

Oliver took the hint, and presently appeared in the tub, rowing himself
with a slip of the wood he had brought over from the Red-hill. Roger
stared at him as he rowed himself out of one chamber, and opened the
door of another, entering it in fine style. Roger presently followed to
see what was doing, and perhaps to try how he liked a voyage in a tub in
a large chamber.

"I see her," cried Oliver, from the window. "I see poor cow's head, and
the ridge of her back above water."

Roger came splashing to the window to look, and jumped into the tub,
making it sink a good deal; but it held both the boys very well. Roger
thought the cow very stupid that she did not get upon the great dunghill
behind her, which would keep her whol