“Be quiet—you must,” he said, decidedly, to the little girl. “We must bestir ourselves now, instead of stopping to see what other folks will do.”
“Oh, father! Father will be drowned!” cried they.
“You don’t know that. If he drifts out to the Humber, which is likely, by the way he is going, some ship may pick him up—or he may light upon some high ground. We can’t settle that now, however; and the clear thing is that he wouldn’t wish us to starve, whether he drowns or not. Come, get up, lad!” said he, stirring Oliver with his foot.
“Don’t lie there, Oliver; do get up!” begged Mildred.
Oliver rose, and did all that Roger bade him.
“You say there is a long rope somewhere about the house,” said Roger. “Where is it?”
“There is one in the cow-shed, I know.”
“And if I cannot get there, is there one in the house?”
“In the lumber-room,” said Mildred. “The spare bed is tied round and round with a long rope—I don’t know how long.”
“I wish we had set about it an hour ago,” muttered Roger, “instead of waiting for dark. A pretty set of fools we have been to lose the daylight! I say, lad, can you think of anyway of making a fire? Here are sticks enough, if one could set them alight.”