e apple-tree were dripping, and the fruit covered with
slime; but these are things which must not be minded in times of flood.
So she went on, often looking away, however, to wonder what things were
which were swept past her, and to watch the proceedings of the boys.
After a while, she became so bold as to consider what a curious thing it
would be if she, without any raft, should pick up some article as
valuable as any that had swum the stream. This thought was put into her
head by seeing something occasionally flap out upon the surface of the
muddy water, as if it were spread out below. It looked to her like the
tail of a coat, or the skirt of a petticoat. She was just about to fish
it up with her paddle, when it occurred to her that it might be the
clothing of a drowned person. She shrank back at the thought, and in
the first terror of having a dead body so near her, called Oliver's
name. He did not hear; and she would not repeat the call when she saw
how busy he was. She tried not to think of this piece of cloth; but it
came up perpetually before her eyes, flap, flapping, till she felt that
it would be best to satisfy herself at once, as to what it was.

She poked her paddle underneath the flap, and found that it was caught
and held down by something heavy. She tugged hard at it, and raised
some more blue cloth. She did not believe there was a body now; and she
laid hold of the cloth and drew it in. It was heavy in itself, and made
more so by the wet, so that the little girl had to set her foot against
a stone in the wall, and employ all her strength, before she could land
the cloth, yard after yard, upon the wall. It was a piece of home-spun,
probably laid out on the grass of some field in the Levels, after
dyeing, and so carried away. When Mildred had pulled in a vast
quantity, there was some resistance;--the rest would not come. Perhaps
something heavy had lodged upon it, and kept it down. Again she used
her paddle, setting her feet against one stone, and pressing her back
against another, to give her more power. In the midst of the effort,
the stone behind her gave way. It was her paddle now, resting against
some support under water, which saved her from popping into the water
with the great stone. As it was, she swayed upon her seat, and was very
nearly gone, while the heavy stone slid in, and raised a splash which
wetted her from head to foot, and left her trembling in every limb. She
had fancie