?' we asked of each other, with looks that betrayed
our fears. Was it a flood--an inundation--a sudden swelling of the
stream? This it plainly was, but what could have caused it? There had
been no rain for several days before, and no great heat to have caused
any unusual melting of the snow upon the mountain. What, then, could be
the origin of this sudden and singular freshet? What could it mean?

"We stood for some time silent, with hearts beating audibly,--each
looking at the others for an answer to this question. The solution
seemed to strike us all at the same time, and a fearful one it was.
Some terrible convulsion--the falling of the precipice perhaps--had
dammed the canon below; no doubt, had blocked up the great fissure by
which the stream found its way from the valley. If such were the case,
then, the valley would soon fill with water, not only to cover the
ground occupied by our camp, _but the tops of the highest trees_!

"You will easily conceive the terror with which this thought was
calculated to inspire us. We could think of no other cause for the
strange inundation; nor, indeed, did we stay longer to consider of any,
but ran back to the camp, determined to escape from the valley as soon
as we could. Cudjo caught the horse, Mary awoke the children, and
brought them out of the wagon, while the boys and I busied ourselves in
collecting a few necessary things, that we might be enabled to carry
along with us.

"Up to this time we had not thought of the difficulty--much less the
_impossibility--of escaping from the valley_. To our horror, that now
became clear as the sun at noon-day; for we perceived that the road by
which we had entered the glade, and which lay along the stream, was
completely covered, and the rising water reached far beyond it! There
was no other path by which we could get out. To attempt cutting one
through the thick tangled woods would be the work of days; moreover, we
remembered that we had crossed the stream on the way to our camp, and
that, of course, would now be swollen below, so that to re-cross it
would be impossible. We had no doubt but that the valley, at its lower
end, was by this time filled with water, and our retreat in that
direction completely cut off! _We knew of no other path_!

"I cannot describe the state of mind into which we were thrown, when
these facts became evident to one and all of us. We were about to start
out from the camp, each of us carrying