ng.

"If I could only swim," exclaimed Oliver, "I would get over to him
somehow, and carry a rope from the house. I am sure there must be a
rope long enough somewhere about the yard. If I could only swim, I
would get to him."

"That you wouldn't," said Roger. "Your father can swim; and why does
not he? Because nobody could swim across that stream. It is a torrent.
It would carry any stout man out over the carr; and you would be no
better than a twig in the middle of it."

"I am afraid now this torrent will not slacken," said Oliver,
thoughtfully. "I am afraid there is some hollow near which will keep up
the current."

"What do you mean by that?"

"They say in Holland, where they have floods sometimes, that when water
flows into a hollow, it gets out in a current, and keeps it up for some
way. Oh! The quarry!" he cried, with sudden recollection. "Mildred,
let us go, and look what is doing on that side before it is dark."

They ran round the hill; and there they saw indeed that the flood was
tumbling in the quarry, like water boiling in a pot. When it rushed
out, it carried white earth with it, which made a long streak in the
flood, and explained how it was that the stream between the house and
the mill was whiter and more muddy than that between their hill and the
house. At once it occurred to Roger that the stream between the hill
and the house was probably less rapid than the other; and he said so.
Oliver ran back; and so did Mildred, pleased at the bare idea of getting
to the house.

Once more arrived opposite the house, they saw a strange sight. The
mill no longer stood in its right place. It had moved a good way down
towards the carr. Not only that, but it was still moving. It was
sailing away like a ship. After the first exclamation, even Roger stood
as still as death to watch it. He neither moved nor spoke till the mill
was out of sight in the dusk. When Mildred burst into a loud cry, and
Oliver threw himself down, hiding his face on the ground, Roger spoke
again.

"Be quiet--you must," he said, decidedly, to the little girl. "We must
bestir ourselves now, instead of stopping to see what other folks will
do."

"Oh, father! Father will be drowned!" cried they.

"You don't know that. If he drifts out to the Humber, which is likely,
by the way he is going, some ship may pick him up--or he may light upon
some high ground. We can't settle that now, however; and the clear
thing is tha