“I guess the flood frightened him,” said Blake, with a smile. “How did he happen to be left in the house?”
“It was because of the confusion of the flood in our town,” explained Mrs. Wentworth. “My husband and I were trying to save some of our things, taking them to my mother’s place on a hill. We had taken Charlie to a neighbor’s house before the water actually reached our dwelling, but he must have wandered back into it again when we did not know it, and have gone to sleep in the bed.”
“Yep. I went to sleep in bed,” supplemented the lad, with a happy laugh.
“Then the levee gave way suddenly,” went on his mother, “and our house, and several others, were carried away. My husband and I supposed Charlie was safe at the neighbor’s until we got there and found him missing. We were frantic, and searched everywhere for him, never dreaming he was in our own house. Then the flood grew worse and we had to flee to high ground. We gave him up for drowned. Oh, it does not seem possible that I have him again!”
“Where is your husband now?” asked Mr. Ringold, as he guided the boat toward the place where the other rescued persons had been landed.
“We came on to this town, where my sister lived,” went on Mrs. Wentworth. “This is my sister,” she added, nodding toward the woman who had first dived into the flood. “We had to take refuge with her, as we had no other home, and we did not think the flood would come here also. But it did, and it brought my little boy to me!” she cried, as again she clasped him in her arms.
“My husband is out, doing relief work,” she resumed, after a moment. “We heard a rumor, this morning, that some children had been rescued from a raft farther down the river and he went down there to investigate, thinking, and hoping against hope, that our Charlie might be one of them.
“He will be more than surprised when he comes back to find my sister’s house burned in the flood, and that I have Charlie. Oh, I wish he were here now!”
“I want to see papa!” broke in Charlie.
“And so you shall, my dear boy, as soon as he comes back. I expect him to-night,” said Mrs. Wentworth. “Oh, I cannot thank you enough—ever!” and she gazed fondly at our friends.