"Oh, don't say that. I don't like to think of wrecks, wrecked vessels or wrecked lives."
"Even wrecked lives may not be lost ones. Sometimes a person may buffet with the seas for a while and then find a harborage. After the storm has passed sunlight may reach him, too."
"That's better. I feel more content with that view of it. Are you going down along, and will you let me know if anything has happened?"
"I will let you know in any event, if you like."
"That's the dear man you always are. I think I'd better go home now to Aunt Cam. She will be getting anxious about me, and I must find out if the rain has been leaking in at that south window."
"Very well. As the Spanish say, Hasta luego."
"That's a sort of 'auf wiedersehen,' I suppose."
"About the same."
They parted and Gwen sprang over the soppy ground, reaching Wits' End to find her aunt and Lizzie busy with cloths mopping up the floor under a window in the living-room, through which the rain had leaked. They had placed basins and buckets to catch the drip, but in spite of all the floor had not escaped a puddle. "The hogshead is full and we have caught a lot more water in the boiler and the tubs, so we are well supplied," said Miss Elliott as Gwen entered.
"Good," cried Gwen. The value of rain water was not to be under-estimated.