The deep channel of the Kanawha was suddenly filled to overflowing, so the entire valley was under water.
Trees, earth, rocks, many of them of large size, and débris of everything it had found in its course was scattered high and low by the swollen stream.
"It was a narrow escape!" exclaimed Mr. Swett. "We owe our lives to you, Dix Lewis, for in saving Flossie here you gave the rest of us a chance to get away. See! the old mill is gone, and everything in it! But we must be thankful that no lives were lost."
The flood subsided almost as quickly as it had come, leaving the marks of its awful desolation.
Not a tree was left standing in the whole range of its fearful path, nor an object that its giant power could move.
The road, as far as could be seen, was entirely obliterated, only a rock-strewn gulley showing where it had been.
Not a piece of the timber of Swett's Mills was to be seen, and the foundation itself had been swept away!
The house had been lifted bodily up and carried several rods, but standing higher than the mills, it had escaped the heavier part of the onset, so it had not been utterly ruined.
Mr. Swett was inclined to take his loss philosophically.
"I don't understand the cause of that breakage, for it was only yesterday that I was examining that dam, and could find no sign of a leak."