put his nose to the ground, if you don't feed him
well: and he shall be where I am,--mind you that."

As he spoke, he opened the door to admit the dog, which Ailwin had put
out upon the stairs, for the sake of her pet hen and chicks which were
all in the room. The hen fluttered up to a beam below the ceiling, on
the appearance of the dog, and the chicks cluttered about, till Ailwin
and Mildred caught them, and kept them in their laps. They glanced
timidly at Roger, remembering the fate of the white hen, the day before.
Roger did not heed them. He had taken out his knife, forked up the
mutton out of the kettle, and cut off the best half for himself and his
dog.

Probably Oliver was thinking that Roger deserved the best they could
give him, for his late services; for he said,--

"I am sure, Roger, Mildred and I shall never forget,--nor father and
mother either, if ever they know, it,--what you have done for us
to-night. We might have died on the Red-hill but for you."

"Stuff!" muttered Roger, as he sat, swinging his legs, with his open
knife in his hand, and his mouth crammed,--"Stuff! As if I cared
whether you and she sink or swim! I like sport that's all."

Nobody spoke. Ailwin helped the children to the poor broth, and the
remains of the meat, shaking her head when they begged her to take some.
She whispered a good deal to Oliver about cherry-brandy; but he replied
aloud that it looked and smelled very good; but that the only time he
had tasted it, it made him rather giddy; and he did not wish to be giddy
to-night;--there was so much to think about; and he was not at all sure
that the flood had got to its height. He said no more, though his mind
was full of his father. Neither he nor Mildred could mention their
father to Ailwin to-night, even if Roger had been out of the way.

Roger probably thought what Oliver did say very silly; for he sat
laughing as he heard it, and for some time after. Half an hour later,
when Ailwin passed near him, while she was laying down a bed for Oliver,
so that they might be all together during this night of alarm, she
thought there was a strong smell of brandy. She flew to her bottle, and
found it empty,--not a drop left Roger had drained it all. His head
soon dropped upon his breast, and he fell from his chair in a drunken
sleep. Mildred shrank back from him in horror; but Ailwin and Oliver
rolled him into a corner of the room, where his dog lay down beside him.

Ailw