how the elm tree had saved it the people were
greatly astonished.

"Look at this," called Tom, as they came to a turn in the road where
the pond ran level with the fields. That was where it was only stream,
and no embankment had been built around it.

"Look!" exclaimed Jack; "the water has come up clear across the road,
and we can only pass by walking on the high board fence."

"Or get a boat," said Tom. "Let's go back to the turn and see if
there's a boat tied anywhere."

"Here's Herolds'," called Harry, as they found the pretty little
rowboat, used for pleasure by the summer cottagers, tied up to a tree.

"We'll just borrow that," said Jack, and then the four boys lifted the
boat to that part of the road where the water ran.

"All get in, and I'll push off," said Harry, who had hip-boots on. The
other three climbed in, then Harry gave a good push and scrambled over
the edge himself.

"Think of rowing a boat in the middle of a street," said Bert. "That's
the way they do in Naples," he added, "but I never expected to see such
a thing in Meadow Brook."

The boys pushed along quite easily, as the water was deep enough to use
oars in, and soon they had rounded the curve of the road and were in
sight of the people looking at the dam.

"What an immense tree!" exclaimed Bert, as they left their boat and
mounted the bank.

"That's what saved the dam!" said Harry. "Now Mrs. Burns can come back
home again."

"But look there!" called Tom. "There goes Peter Burns' chicken house."

Sure enough, the henhouse had left its foundation and now toppled over
into the stream.

It had been built below the falls, near the Burns house, and Peter had
some valuable ducks and chickens in it.

"The chickens!" called Jack, as they ran along. "Get the boat, Harry,
and we can save some."

The boys were dashing out now right in the stream, Jack and Tom being
good oarsmen.

But the poor chickens! What an awful noise they made, as they tried to
keep on the dry side of the floating house!

The ducks, of course, didn't mind it, but they added their queer
quacking to the noise.

"We can never catch any of the chickens," said Harry. "We ought to have
a rope and pull the house in."

"A rope," called Tom to the crowd on the shore. "Throw us a rope!"

Someone ran off and got one, and it was quickly thrown out to the boys
in the boat.

"Push up closer," Tom told Harry and Bert, who had the oars now. Tom
made a big loop on the rope