"There, now," he said; "if there's going to be a big flood in the creek I'm going down to see it, rain or no rain. There's no telling how high it'll rise if this pour keeps on long enough. It rattles on the roof like buckshot!" "That's the end of the old tavern," said Jack to Mary, as he stood in the front room looking out. He was barefooted, and had come so silently that she was startled. "Jack!" she exclaimed, turning around, "they might have all been killed when the steeple came down. I heard what Joe Hawkins said, and I led out the class." "Good for Joe!" said Jack. "We need a new meeting-house, any way. I heard the elder say so. Less steeple, next time, and more church!" "I'd like to see a real big church," said Mary,--"a city church." "You'd like to go to the city as much as I would," said Jack. "Yes, I would," she replied emphatically. "Just you get there and I'll come afterward, if I can. I've been studying twice as hard since I left the academy, but I don't know why." "I know it," said Jack; "but I've had no time for books." "Jack! Molly!" the voice of Aunt Melinda came up the stairway. "Are you ever coming down-stairs?" "What will the elder say to my coming down barefoot?" said Jack; "but I don't want shoes if I'm going out into the mud." "He won't care at such a time as this," said Mary. "Let's go." It was not yet supper-time, but it was almost dark enough to light the lamps. Jack felt better satisfied about his appearance when he found how dark and shadowy the parlor was; and he felt still better when he saw his father dressed as if he were going over to work at the forge, all but the leather apron. The elder did not seem disturbed. He and Mr. Murdoch were talking about all sorts of great disasters, and Mary did not know just when she was drawn into the talk, or how she came to acknowledge having read about so many different things all over the world. "Jack," whispered his mother, at last, "you'll have to go to the barn and gather eggs, or we sha'n't have enough for supper." "I'll bring the eggs if I don't get drowned before I get back," said Jack; and he found a basket and an umbrella and set out. He took advantage of a little lull in the rain, and ran to the barn-yard gate. "Hullo!" he exclaimed. "Now I'll have to wade. Why it's nearly a foot deep! There'll be the biggest kind of a freshet in the Cocahutchie. Isn't this jolly?" The rain pattered on the roof as if it had been the head of a drum. If the house was gloomy, the old barn was darker and gloomier. Jack turned over a half-bushel measure and sat down on it. "I want to think," he said. "I want to get out of this. Seems to me I never felt it so before. I'd as lief live in this barn as stay in Crofield." He suddenly sprang up and shook off his blues, exclaiming: "I'll go and see the freshet, anyhow!" He carried the eggs into the house.