“I see you’ve collected one of Old Noah’s souvenirs,” she remarked a moment later, noticing the blue bottle which Penny had tossed into the bottom of the boat.
“We found it floating in the water,” Louise volunteered. “The message was such a queer one—an invitation to take refuge in the ark during the Great Deluge. Someone’s idea of a joke, I suppose.”
“It’s no joke,” Sara corrected. “Noah is a very real person. He actually lives in an ark too—a weird looking boat he built himself.”
“You mean the old fellow actually believes there’s going to be another great flood?” Penny asked incredulously.
“Oh, yes! Noah is so sure of it that he’s collected a regular menagerie of animals to live with him on the ark. He keeps dropping bottles into the water warning folks that the Great Deluge is coming. I fish out dozens of them here at the dock.”
“Where is the ark?” Penny inquired curiously.
Sara squeezed the last drop of water from the sponge and pointed diagonally upstream toward a gap in the trees.
“That’s where Bug Run empties into the river,” she explained. “Noah has his ark grounded not far from its mouth. The currents are such that whenever he dumps his bottles in the water most of them come this way.”
“Rather a nuisance I should think,” commented Penny.
“Noah’s a pest!” Sara complained, straightening from her task. “I suppose he’s harmless, but those bottles of his create a hazard for our boats. Burt has asked him several times not to throw them in the water. He just keeps right on doing it.”