Part 4 (1/2)

”How? Why?”

”Why, it was bad enough that so much gypsum was spoiled yesterday. I am afraid now the whole quarry will be spoiled. And then I doubt whether the harvest will not be ruined all through the Levels: and I am pretty sure nothing will be growing in the garden when the waters are gone.

That was not our horse that went by; but our horse may be drowned, and the cow, and the sow, and everything.”

”Not the fowls,” said Mildred. ”Look at them, all in a row on the top of the cow-shed. They will not be drowned, at any rate.”

”But then they may be starved. O dear!” he continued, with a start of recollection, ”I wonder whether Ailwin has thought of moving the meal and the grain up-stairs. It will be all rotted and spoiled if the water runs through it.”

He shouted, and made signs to Ailwin, with all his might; but in vain.

She could not hear a word he said, or make anything of his signs. He was vexed, and said Ailwin was always stupid.

”So she is,” replied Mildred; ”but it does not signify now. Look how the water is pouring out of the parlour-window. The meal and grain must have been wet through long ago. Is not that a pretty waterfall? A waterfall from our parlour-window, down upon the tulip-bed! How very odd!”

”If one could think how to feed these poor animals,” said Oliver,--”and the fowls! If there was anything here that one could get for them! One might cut a little gra.s.s for the cow;--but there is nothing else.”

”Only the leaves of the trees, and a few blackberries, when they are ripe,” said Mildred, looking round her, ”and flowers,--wild-flowers, and a few that mother planted.”

”The bees!” cried Oliver. ”Let us save them. They can feed themselves.

We will save the bees.”

”Why, you don't think they are drowned?” said Mildred.

The bees were not drowned; but they were in more danger of it than Mildred supposed. Their little shed was placed on the side of the Red-hill, so as to overlook the flowery garden. The waters stood among the posts of this shed; and the hives themselves shook with every wave that rolled along.

”You cannot do it, Oliver,” cried Mildred, as her brother crept down the slope to the back of the shed. ”You can never get round, Oliver. You will slip in, Oliver!”

Oliver looked round and nodded, as there was no use in speaking in such a noise. He presently showed that he did not mean to go round to the front of the shed. That would never have done; for the flood had washed away the soil there, and left nothing to stand upon. He broke away the boards at the back of the bee-shed, which were old and loosely fastened.

He was glad he had come; for the bees were bustling about in great confusion and distress, evidently aware that something great was the matter. Oliver seized one of the hives, with the board it stood on, and carried it, as steadily as he could, to a sunny part of the hill, where he put it down on the gra.s.s. He then went for another, asking Mildred to come part of the way down to receive the second hive, and put it by the first, as he saw there was not a moment to lose. She did so; but she trembled so much, that it was probable she would have let the hive fall, if it had ever been in her hands. It never was, however. The soil was now melting away in the water, where Oliver had stood firmly but a few minutes before. He had to take great care, and to change 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.