“It means, I am afraid, that more of the house is coming down. Look at this great zigzag crack in the wall!—and how loose the plaster hangs in that part of the ceiling! I really think,—I am quite sure, we ought not to stay here any longer.”
“But where can we go? What shall we do?”
“We must think about that, and lose no time. I think this room will fall very soon.”
Mildred could not help crying, and saying that they could not settle themselves, and rest at all. She never saw anything like it. They were all so tired they did not know what to do; and now they should have to work as hard as ever. She never saw anything like it.
“No, dear, never,” said her brother: “and thousands of people, far older than you, never saw anything like this flood. But you know, Mildred, we must not die, if we can help it.”
This reminded Mildred who it was that set them these heavy tasks,—that bade them thus labour to preserve the lives He gave. She was silent. Oliver went on—
“If ever we meet father and mother again, we shall not mind our having been ever so much tired now. We shall like telling them all our plans and doings, if it should please God that we should ever sit with them by the fire-side.”
“Or whenever we meet them in heaven, if they should not be alive now,” said Mildred.
“Yes, dear; but we will talk over all that when we get to the Red-hill:—we must not talk any more now, but set to work. However, I really think, Mildred, that father and mother are still alive somewhere. I feel as if they were.”
“But the Red-hill,” said Mildred, “what do you mean about the Red-hill? We are not going there, where Roger is,—are we?”