have burst. And yet the weather has been
fine enough lately. Perhaps the sluices are broken up."

Seeing that Mildred did not understand the more for what he said, he
explained--

"You know, all these Levels were watery grounds once; more wet than the
carr yonder. Well,--great clay banks were made to keep out the Humber
waters, over there, to the north-east, and on the west and north-west
yonder, to keep two or three rivers there from overflowing the land.
Then several canals and ditches were cut, to drain the land; and there
are great gates put up, here and there, to let the waters in and out, as
they are wanted. I am afraid those gates are gone, or the clay banks
broken down, so that the sea and the rivers are pouring in all the water
they have."

"But when will it be over? Will it ever run off again? Shall we ever
get home again?"

"I do not know anything about it. We must wait, and watch what father
will do. See! What is this coming?"

"A dead horse!" exclaimed Mildred. "Drowned, I suppose. Don't you
think so, Oliver?"

"Drowned, of course.--Do you know, Mildred," he continued, after a
silence, during which he was looking towards the sheds in the yard,
while his sister's eyes were following the body of the horse as it was
swept along, now whirled round in an eddy, and now going clear over the
hedge into the carr,--"do you know, Mildred," said Oliver, "I think
father will be completely ruined by this flood."

"Do you?" said Mildred, who did not quite know what it was to be ruined.
"How? Why?"

"Why, it was bad enough that so much gypsum was spoiled yesterday. I am
afraid now the whole quarry will be spoiled. And then I doubt whether
the harvest will not be ruined all through the Levels: and I am pretty
sure nothing will be growing in the garden when the waters are gone.
That was not our horse that went by; but our horse may be drowned, and
the cow, and the sow, and everything."

"Not the fowls," said Mildred. "Look at them, all in a row on the top
of the cow-shed. They will not be drowned, at any rate."

"But then they may be starved. O dear!" he continued, with a start of
recollection, "I wonder whether Ailwin has thought of moving the meal
and the grain up-stairs. It will be all rotted and spoiled if the water
runs through it."

He shouted, and made signs to Ailwin, with all his might; but in vain.
She could not hear a word he said, or make anything of his signs. He
was vexed, and