"They have axes on board the Islander; and I don't think it would take our crew long to cut her out of that hole," added Washburn. "Why does she keep whistling? Her captain can imagine that we have not steam enough to work the Sylvania in such a current."
"I say, Washy, have you ever been down the Danube?" asked Owen.
"I never have been. I was never in Europe," replied the mate.
"I should say this current is quite as swift as that of the Danube at Vienna; and it makes seven miles an hour there."
"The ordinary current of the Mississippi is about five miles an hour, and in such a freshet it must be as much as seven."
"What is a freshet, Mr. Mate?"
"An inundation; an overflow of the water; a flood; a——"
"Cut it short! I understand it perfectly. I never heard it called a freshet before. Has it anything to do with the fact that this is fresh water, Washy?"
"I don't think it has, though I never heard of such a thing as a freshet in salt water, which could not very well be, since a freshet is caused by heavy rains and the melting of the snow," replied Washburn. "You never heard of a freshet before! Where have you been all your life?"
"That's an American word, Mr. Washburn," interposed my father. "I never heard it except in this country."