"'Mr. Barr, sir,' said a man, approaching the carriage, 'last night was a fearful night. We narrowly escaped with our lives.' And pointing in the direction of the cottage: 'The Professor yonder was drowned, and his house swept away by the flood. The Lord help his little gurl!'"
"'Where is she?' asked Mr. Barr.
"'She's with me wife in the hut over on the hill, and she's entirely heart-broken with the loss of her father, sir.'
"'We must do something for her at once,' said my kind-hearted friend. Then turning to the man: 'Jump in; we are going to drive up to the hut.'
"We drove on at a brisk pace, while the man related his sad story.
"'You see, sir,' he began, 'the storm got so fierce, and the water riz so high about the cabin, that I told Betsey to get the children ready and we'd take to the boat. Now the big boat had capsized at the stake, and I had naught but the little one, and I wuz afeared the weight of us would swamp her in sech a sea. Just as we neared the cottage the Professor he come out on the shed and shouted to me, sez he, "James, for the love of Heaven save my child." I sez, "Ay, ay, sir, I'll do me best." It wuz no small thing to get her aboard, I can tell yer, sir. The wind wuz a-blowin' a gale, and it wuz all I could do to keep the boat steady before it. After a good deal of hard work, and no little danger, we got her under the lee of the house, and took the little gurl in.
"'Oh! but, sir, it would hev made yer heart ache to see her there cryin' about leavin' her father. I really do think she'd hev staid with him and died if he hadn't hev sed, "Mary, my child, you must get into the boat at once; then I will only have myself to look after, and I will be much more likely to be saved. God keep you, my darling!" Them was the last words I ever heerd him say.'
"By this time we had reached the top of the hill, and we were not long in getting to the hut.
"What a lovely child it was that ran out to meet us as we approached, but soon stopped, and looking wistfully at us, inquired, in a low sad voice, 'Have you found my father yet?'
"The boatman in his gentlest manner said, 'Not yet, dear.'