"I hope not, for then we might all be drowned."
"Yes, unless some one came and rescued us."
It was with a heavy and foreboding heart that Mrs Price retired to rest. She made her little daughter sleep in her own room, while Leslie was placed in one much nearer her own than that he had previously occupied.
"Good night, Leslie," said Mrs Price, kissing him; "be sure and not forget to say your prayers, for we all need God's help."
Leslie had no idea how long he had been asleep, when he started up in bed with an undefinable impression that something was wrong. He sat rubbing his eyes, and but half awake—a confused sound, he knew not what, fell upon his ear; it seemed as if some dreadful strife was going on outside his window, something seemed in a terrible fury, raging wildly.
As his senses became more collected, he listened, and then he heard sounds which made him at once spring from his bed, slip on his trousers, and rush to the window; he hurriedly forced it open, and looked out. The night was still dark, and the wind still high, but something unusual was taking place in the playground directly underneath where he stood; for a minute or two he could not make out what it could be, but as his eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness, he could distinctly make it out to be the surging and roaring of water, which appeared to increase even as he gazed.
"Why," he thought, "the banks have given way, and the river has overflown—the house will be washed away."
Then his thoughts instantly reverted to Mrs Price and Maud, perhaps they were unacquainted with the danger which threatened them, which must be greater than his, for their room was on a lower floor. Without a moment's thought about the risk he might possibly run, half dressed as he was, he opened his room-door, and groped his way down stairs as quickly as he could.
He could hear the water dashing up against the stairs, how far down he knew not, but, judging from the sounds which it made, he concluded it must be very near Mrs Price's bedroom; this fact made him hurry faster, and not quite so cautiously as before, the consequences of which was his slipping down a number of the stairs, and falling plump into the water, which had already reached the landing; it was not deep, however, so he was quickly upon his feet again, and a moment or two after hammering with might and main at the door of the room in which Maud and her mamma were sleeping.
"Who is there?" came Mrs Price's voice.