his
footing every instant; and it was not without slipping and sliding, and
wet feet, that he brought away the second hive. Mildred saw how hot he
was, as he sat resting, with the hive, before climbing the bank, and
begged that he would not try any more.

"These poor bees!" exclaimed Oliver, beginning to move again, on the
thought of the bees being drowned. But he had done all he could. The
water boiled up between the shed and the bank, lifted the whole
structure, and swept it away. Oliver hastened to put down the second
hive beside the first; and when he returned, saw that the posts had
sunk, the boards were floating away, and the remaining hive itself
sailing down the stream.

"How it rocks!" cried Mildred. "I wish it would turn quite over, so
that the poor things might get out, and fly away."

"They never will," said Oliver. "I wish I had thought of the bees a
little sooner. It is very odd that you did not, Mildred."

"I don't know how to think of anything," said Mildred, dolefully; "it is
all so odd and so frightful!"

"Well, don't cry, if you can help it, dear," said her brother. "We
shall see what father will do. He won't cry;--I am sure of that."

Mildred laughed: for she never had seen her father cry.

"He was not far off crying yesterday, though," said Oliver, "when he saw
your poor hen lying dead. He looked--but, O Mildred! What can have
become of the Redfurns? We have, been thinking all this while about the
bees; and we never once remembered the Redfurns. Why, their tent was
scarcely bigger than our hives; and I am sure it could not stand a
minute against the flood."

While he spoke, Oliver was running to the part of the hill which
commanded the widest view of the carr, and Mildred was following at his
heels,--a good deal startled by the hares which leaped across her path.
There seemed to be more hares now on the hill than she had seen in all
her life before. She could not ask about the hares, however, when she
saw the brown tent, or a piece of it, flapping about in the water, a
great way off, and sweeping along with the current.

"Hark! What was that? Did you hear?" said Oliver, turning very pale.

"I thought I heard a child crying a great way off," said Mildred,
trembling.

"It was not a child, dear. It was a shriek,--a woman's shriek, I am
afraid. I am afraid it is Nan Redfurn, somewhere in the carr. O dear,
if they should all be drowned, and nobody there to help them!"

"