An Autumn Flood.
"I am going," said Mary's mamma, on another evening, to tell youa story about Scotland, and about some children who went there bysea, in a large steam-ship.
Their names were Charlotte, Helen, and Robert, and they went withtheir papa and mamma to visit their uncle and aunt. They went inAugust, when the weather is fine, and the days are long. Theyleft home in the evening, for the steamer was to start at teno'clock at night. There was a great bustle when they came to theplace where the ships lie in the river Thames. Many people weregetting their trunks and boxes in, and hurrying about. They likedto see all this bustle, and to see their own trunks and boxes putin. Then they stepped on board, across a wide, firm plank, andjumped for joy to find themselves really in the ship, and goingto Scotland.
It was such a large steamer! They were surprised to see what alength it was. Then they went into a handsome cabin, called thesaloon, beautifully lighted, with a great many people in it; andafter being there a little while they grew very tired, and theirmamma took them to the cabin where they were to sleep. When theysaw their beds, they all began to laugh. They looked just likebeds made on shelves, one above another. Two were on one side andtwo on the other, of a kind of closet. But they soon crept in,Charlotte and Helen one above another, and little Robertopposite. The fourth bed was for their nurse, who was going withthem. They were all soon asleep. They never knew when thesteamer began to go fast down the river towards the sea.
In the morning when they awoke, first one and then another hearda constant "thump, thump! bump, bump!" going on. This noise wasmade by the great engine that turned the paddle-wheels, and movedthe ship on. And they felt the ship shaking, and trembling, androcking, and then they were surprised to hear that they werealready out of the river Thames, and had got into the salt sea.They were in a great hurry to be dressed, and when they ran upon the deck they saw the land on one side of them, and numbers ofships all round them, with their white sails shining in the sun,for it was a very fine morning. They tried to count them, but itwas very difficult; Charlotte counted a hundred, and Helen ahundred and ten. As to little Robert, he was too delighted tokeep steady enough to count, and after trying once or twice,declared that there must be a thousand.
Very soon they were called to breakfast in the saloon, and sat bytheir papa and mamma very happily; but they ran away before theyhad finished, to see a town called Yarmouth, by which theypassed so closely that they could see the houses, and bathingmachines, and people. All the morning they had plenty to look at.They met other steamers, and fishing-boats, and ships, and sawdifferent places on the coast. But before dinner-time they hadlost sight of land, and saw nothing all round them but sea, anddid not meet so many ships and boats. Their papa then took themto see the engine, and the great fires down in the engine-room,and made them look at the paddle-wheels, that go foaming roundand round. Then came dinner-time, and they were very hungry; andafterwards they amused themselves with running about on the deckand reading story books. Soon after tea they went to bed and fellfast asleep.
Next morning they were glad to see the coast again. They werepassing high cliffs and dark rocks, and they saw many sea-birds;gulls, with large flapping wings, that gave a strange, wild cry;and divers--pretty little creatures, that swam, riding along onthe waves, and every now and then dipped down quite under, andthen came up again at a little distance. On went the greatsteam-ship, and soon their papa told them that the land they nowsaw was Scotland.
Presently they came to some very fine rocks, higher than any theyhad seen, and then they passed some rocky islands. Now they beganto see a great many large white birds flying about, stretchingout their long necks, and their papa told them that these werecalled Solan geese, and that they had their nests on a greatrock, standing out in the sea, called the Bass Rock. They sooncame in sight of it, and when they passed near it they could seethat its sides were all white with hundreds of these geese thatwere sitting there, and great numbers were flying in the air overit and round it. When they were able to leave off looking at allthis, they saw on the top of the high cliff opposite to the BassRock a large ruined castle, called Tantallon Castle, which theythought very beautiful.
"Do you remember reading about the Black Douglas in 'Tales of aGrandfather'?" asked their papa.
"O, yes," said first one, and then another.
"Well, that was his castle," he replied.
They looked at Tantallon Castle for a long time, as long as itwas in sight. Charlotte said it was a great pity it was soruined, and Robert wished he could see where the drawbridge usedto be.
Now there began to be a great bustle in the ship, for they weregetting near Edinburgh, where they were to land. At lastEdinburgh was in sight. It is the capital city of Scotland, justas London is of England, and it is very beautiful. They saw itquite plain from the sea, with hills behind it and on each sideof it, of many forms; some bare and rocky, others clothed withtrees. When they came quite opposite to it, a gun was fired inthe ship. It made such a noise that everybody started, and someof the ladies screamed. Charlotte and Helen did not like it; butRobert did very much indeed. Very soon afterwards they came up toa fine pier, stretching out into the sea, and there they alllanded.
"So now they were in Scotland," said Willie.
They found their uncle's carriage waiting for them, and it tookthem to his house in the country, about fifteen miles off.
Well, at this place they were very happy. There was plenty ofgreen grass to play about upon, and there were large, spreadingtrees, and sheep, and cows, and horses, and ponies; and there wasa nice garden, with plenty of fruit and flowers. But what I amgoing to tell you most about is a little river that ran alongjust outside the garden wall; because this little river was thecause of a curious adventure, that happened in the month ofSeptember, after they had been several weeks in this pleasantplace.
This river was narrow, and rather deep in some places; but inothers it was broader, and very shallow. It was so shallow indry weather that you could cross it without wetting your feet,by choosing some part where there were large stones standing up,and where there was not much water. But then you must gosteadily. Charlotte could do it very easily; Helen generallystopped short, after she had placed her foot on the second stone,and turned back; but as to Robert, he jumped from stone to stone,and a day hardly ever passed that he did not go souse into thewater, and get quite wet half up his legs. The proper way tocross was by a long plank, laid from one bank to the other, orby a little wooden bridge not far off.
You would hardly think that such a little gentle river as thiscould suddenly swell into a foaming flood, and do all manner ofmischief. But so it was.
This river rose, or began to flow, among a range of hills at somemiles distance; and when you are older, you will understand howit is that rivers that rise among hills or mountains are apt tooverflow when there is much rain. It happened one day, when allthe family, except the children, had gone out on a visit, that itrained from morning till night, and when night came it stillrained heavily. In the morning, when nurse went to dress thechildren, she told them to look out of the window. Their surprisewas great to see the little stream, that they were used to stepacross, changed into a wide, rapid, foaming river. It made such asound that they could hear it quite plain in their bed-room. Itno longer looked clear and blue, but was thick, muddy, and of thecolor of red clay. They did not like to see it so; and what wasworse it still rained, and the water rose more and more. Theplank across it had been carried away in the night by the water,and had gone swimming down the stream. Before they had donebreakfast, they heard that the wooden bridge was broken down; andnow, when they looked out, they saw that the water had spreadhalf over the meadow on the opposite side. The trees werestanding in it, and looked as if they grew in a lake. The cowswere all collected on a high bank, among some trees, and werelowing and appearing quite angry and offended at this strangeconduct in the river. The sheep had gone as far as they could outto the very hedge, to keep on dry ground. The ponies ha
d found ahigh part of the field, that had water all round it, so that itlooked like a green island, and were feeding quite contentedly.Now and then they looked up, and shook their manes, as much as tosay, "You can't get at us. It's of no use to want a ride."
At last it stopped raining, and the children were well wrappedup, and put on good thick shoes, and went out to look at all thisnearer. On their way they met the gardener running down to try tosave his stack of pea-sticks; but he was too late, it was alreadyswimming away; all his fine stack, that he had piled up readyfor spring; and he had had so many more important things to takecare of that he had not had time to remove it sooner.
Many things now came floating down on the water. Young trees,branches, parts of railings and fences, broken bridges andplanks, all went hurrying along, and the water foamed, androared, and surged, and looked quite fearful.
While they all stood looking on, the gardener still lamentingover his pea-sticks, they saw something that looked like a largecovered basket come floating along. It chanced that it passedvery near the bank on which they stood, and little Robert criedout, "Stop it!" and began to try to reach it with a long pole hehad in his hands, with which he had been pretending to be a ship,and holding this up for the mast. He could not reach it; but thegardener took the pole, and after failing once or twice, managedto push and poke at the basket till he got it so near that thedairy-maid and nurse reached it with their hands, and pulled itto the bank. It was only covered with a few arched sticks, overwhich a white cloth was fastened.
They all crowded round it to see what it contained. They liftedup the white cloth. O, wonder and surprise! What did they see?
"What was it? _What_ did they see?" cried Mary and Willie both atonce.
They saw a pretty little baby fast asleep, and at its feet a catcoiled up comfortably.
"And was the baby not hurt, mamma?"
No, it was quite safe, and did not awake directly. Puss awoke andjumped out, and ran off before any one could stop her.
The gardener said, that the basket, which they now saw to be acradle, must have floated away from some cottage in the villagejust above. "Some poor woman is perhaps now in great grief abouther child," said he.
"But we've got it safe," said Charlotte. "We'll take great careof it, and give it back to her. Let us take it into a warm room."
As she said this the baby opened its eyes and began to cry. Nurselifted it up and tried to quiet it, and they all went in with it,the children kissing its poor little red arms, and saying allsorts of soothing things to it. When they got into the house,nurse asked for some warm whey with a little sugar in it. Shesaid that was the best thing for such a little baby; and itsucked it in, and seemed to like it, and soon began to smile, andcrow, and kick about its feet, and throw about its arms. Thechildren were quite delighted at this; and now being happy aboutthe baby they began to think of poor puss; and Robert and Helenwent out to look for her. They found her just outside the housedoor, mewing and making a great fuss. Helen ran away and got asaucer full of milk, and put it down in the lobby. At this, pussbegan to walk slowly in, and then ran up to it and lapped it allup; and then she let Helen take her up, and carry her into theroom where the baby was.
While they were all engaged in this way, they heard sounds ofvoices shouting and calling out near the river, and ran to thewindow to see what it was. They saw far out, on the other side ofthe water, near the edge of the meadow, five or six men and awoman, and the gardener was making signs and calling out to them.
"O!" said nurse, "you may be sure that is the poor mother of thebaby."
"Let us run out and hold up the baby, to show her it is safe!"cried Charlotte. "Come quick! O, how happy she will be!"
Nurse wrapped up the baby in a warm shawl, and out they went.Helen carried the cat, and little Robert came bustling after themwith the cradle, shouting as loud as he could, "They're all safe!here they are! look here!"
When the gardener saw them coming, he ran and caught up littleCharlotte in his arms, and nurse gave her the baby, and she held itup as high as she could. The poor woman, who was indeed the mother,saw it directly, and seemed hardly able to bear so much joy, forher husband who was by her, threw his arm round her as if toprevent her falling down. She clasped her hands together--then heldthem out towards her child--then raised them upwards.
Mary and Willie could not sit still any longer, they both jumpedup, and began to clap their hands and dance for joy.
"Did she come to the house to bring away her baby?" asked Mary.
Yes; she walked about two miles off, to a part of the river wherethere was a stone bridge; it was impossible to get acrossnearer, so she came in about an hour.
"But did she see that puss was there?" said Willie.
O, yes; I forgot to tell you that after she had a littlerecovered of the first joy of seeing her child safe, nurse heldup Helen with puss in her arms, and Robert climbed up on thestump of a tree, and held up the cradle as high as he could.
"And then what did they do when the mother came?" said Mary.
She kissed her baby, and cried over it, and held it a long timein her arms; and her husband, who came also, told them that theflood had risen so suddenly that it had carried away part of thewall of their cottage, and swept away everything they had, whilehe and his wife were trying to save their stack of wood; and thatwhen they turned round, at the sound of the rushing water, theyfound that the cradle was gone; and then they forgot every thingelse, and ran with several of their neighbors by the side of theriver; but never hoped to find their child alive.
"But it _was_ alive, and safe, and well," said Mary, "with thesekind little girls and little Robert."
And when their uncle and aunt came home they were very kind tothe father and mother. They had their cottage built up again andfurnished, and gave them help in putting their garden in order,and there always continued to be kind feeling between them. As tothe baby, it grew up to be a fine strong boy, and its parentsnamed it Robert, in memory of the little boy who had helped tosave it from the water.