"How are you to get here, Mansy?"

That was the difficulty; and Mansy, as she looked at the dull, sullen water, felt she could not answer the question. First she thought of boldly plunging in and wading up to the house door. But, strong-nerved as she was, she shrank from this, and after carefully plumbing the depth a little way with the bulging umbrella, she shrank from it still more. It might be too dangerous.

In the dim twilight of that cloudy summer evening she stood on the water's brink and watched the flood go swaying past. She felt stupefied and bewildered. Whence came the flood, and how? A more unexpected thing had never happened to her. And now she knew that the children were safe, the unexpectedness of it, the amazement of the whole thing, seemed almost to benumb her senses.

But she soon roused herself, when across the water sounded a shrill boyish voice, which shouted—"I'll bring you over, Mansy. I'm coming for you. Look out!"

"Bless the boy! that's my Master Alfy. Whatever is he up to now?"

And the good woman strained her eyes in the direction of the house to see what her favourite boy was doing.

She heard numerous childish exclamations, shouts, and laughter, and noises as of something knocking against the walls of the house. Then a splash!

"Whatever is that boy doing?" cried Mansy. "Don't you get drownded!" she screamed. "Do take care, Master Alfy! I'd rather stay here all night than you should come to harm!"

"All right, Mansy dear," shouted the shrill voice of the boy. "I'm coming, safe and sound, Mansy."

"Now, what is he a-comin' in?" cried the good woman, gazing into the dusk. She saw the dim outline of something which soon she recognised.

"Why, bless the boy! he's in the big washing tub! My! and how clever he do manage it!"

Mansy was quite right. The plucky little lad had hit on this expedient of ferrying the old nurse and housekeeper over the flood to the house! He had obtained two large kitchen ladles, and with these he was propelling and guiding the unwieldy round tub, which bobbed about provokingly on the turbid water, and made but little progress. It would have been still less, perhaps, but for the fact that the water flowed from the direction of the house past the old nurse.

But the difficulty the boy had soon to encounter was to guide the tub to her, for it was in great danger of being carried past. The house stood in a small valley or depression of ground, which rose to the lane up which Mansy had been walking. She was now standing on the verge of the water, which appeared to surround the house entirely, and completely obliterated the lawn and garden, except for the trees and shrubs, and the boundary hedge which stood above the turbid flood.

"Now, Mansy, look out!" cried Alfy. And whirling through the air came a thin rope, which, before she was aware, struck her shoulder.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what's that? What are you doing, Alfy?"

"Catch tight hold of it—quick, Mansy!"

Mansy's energy and common-sense were returning, and she was on the alert in a moment. She caught the rope, and held it firmly. "The new clothes line!" she exclaimed, "Bless the boy! what next?"

"Pull, Mansy dear, pull!" he shouted. She pulled hard, and the tub slowly floated towards her.

"That's right; jolly!" exclaimed Alfy, as the tub, with its bright, brave little burden, came close to Mansy and touched the ground before her.

"My dear boy," exclaimed the good old woman, "how did this water happen? And I am so glad to find you all well."

"Yes, all right, Mansy. Now get in the tub, quick! Is it not fun?"

"What! me get in the washing-tub?" she exclaimed. "Oh! I couldn't!"

"Why, yes, Mansy dear; that's what I came for. You'll be all right."

"Why, it wouldn't bear me! We should go to the bottom."

"Oh! nonsense, Mansy! Why, don't you remember at the seaside regatta, last year men had a race in tubs?"

"Ah! but I'm—I'm—heavier than them men," said Mansy thoughtfully, looking down on her ample proportions.

"The tub is big," exclaimed Alfy. "It is the biggest we have. We had a work to get it out of the window; and it made such a splash! Come on, dear Mansy!"

"I wouldn't do it for nobody but you, Master Alfy!"

"Well, do it for me then, Mansy. I'll take care of you; see if I don't."

"Anyhow, the parcels might go in. There's something there nice, Alfy,—a tongue—a nice Paysandoo; and some jam—blackberry and apple mixed, and some biscuits."

"Oh! jolly! treat! Come on, dear Mansy, let's be quick back."

"Has not the butcher come?" asked the old nurse.

"No; no tradesmen could cross over from the village, nor yet the postman, and we expected a letter from mother and father. We are all surrounded by water in the house, just like an island. 'The Island House' Madge called it!"

"And Miss Madge, and Miss Edie, and Jane are quite well?"

"Yes, quite, dear Mansy. Only do be quick, please."

The old nurse bent over and put the packages into the tub.

"There!" she said, as it dipped, "see how that weighs it down."

"Only a bob down when the parcels fell in," Alfy cried merrily. "See, it is all right now. You can't get across any other way," he added decidedly.

"Well, I'll try it," she said slowly; "but I very much doubt——"

She did not finish the sentence, but carefully planting the bulging umbrella in the water, she leaned on it, and then advanced one foot to place in the tub. "Oh, I can't!" she cried, just as the foot was over the side of the tub, and she hastily drew back.

"You could, Mansy dear," exclaimed Alfy. "You were just doing it beautifully!"

"But didn't you see how the tub was going down, Master Alfy?"

"Oh, no, it wasn't; try again, there's a dear!"

So Mansy, persuaded by Alfy, whom she loved like her own son, and spurred on also by the desire to reach the house, tried again. She leaned on the umbrella, and slowly advanced her right foot as before, but this time she plumped it down into the tub.

Down it bobbed, of course, under her weight. "Oh-h-h!" she cried. "I shall drown you, Alfy!" and hastily she drew back again. "Me in a tub!" she cried. "I can't!"

"It really is all right," said Alfy again. "It will take us both. Why, these flat-bottomed things float in ever such a little water. Try once more, Mansy dear, and then I can give you a kiss."

"I dessay you could, my bonnie baby, and I know you'd do anything to help your old nurse. You're a real good boy; but go in that rockety thing I couldn't!"

"Tisn't rickety, Mansy, when once you are inside. Look here," and he jumped in it, and shook it from side to side. Of course his light weight was nothing to speak of, and it sat like a cork on the water.

"You take over the parcels to your sisters, Alfy dear, and then they'll have something to eat."

"No, I'm not going without you, Mansy!" he exclaimed decidedly, pulling the tub in again by the rope quite close.

"Bless the boy! To think of my little Master Alfy taking his old nurse in a tub! What would your parients say, on the Continong?"

"Well, it must be, you see, Mansy dear, so please come on!"

"Well, if we do turn over, I'll save you, Master Alfy. So now I'll try again."

And once more leaning on the umbrella, she put one foot into the tub, and not caring for its plumping down into the water, this time she quickly brought the other foot after the first.

"Capital! capital!" cried Alfy. "There, you see, we have not gone over!"

No, they had not gone over; but he soon found they were not going at all! The tub was just aground, and would not move without being pushed off.

So Alfy endeavoured to edge off the clumsy craft with the ladles, and called on Mansy to help with the indispensable bulgy umbrella. The moon was now shining, and albeit it was with a wan and watery gleam, yet it enabled them to see their course a little more clearly.

After strenuous