The rain had poured down without mitigation for seven consecutive days; the roads were in a very plaster-y state; dissevered branches of trees lay scattered upon the ground; tubs and hogsheads, which careful housewives had placed under dripping spouts, were full to overflowing; the soaked hides of the cattle looked sleek as their owners' pomatum'd heads of a Sunday; the old hen stood poised on one leg at the barn-door, till even her patience had given out; the farmers had mended all the old hoe and rake handles, read the Almanac through and through, and worn all the newspapers and village topics threadbare, when the welcome sun at last broke through the clouds, and every little and big puddle in the road hastened joyfully to reflect his beams. Old Doctor Hall started down cellar for his "eleven o'clock mug of cider;" to his dismay he found his slippered pedestals immersed in water, which had risen above the last step of the cellar-stairs. "A pretty piece of work this rain has made, Mis. Hall," said the doctor, stamping his wet feet and blowing his nose, as he returned from his visit to the lower regions; "the water has overflowed the cellar, and got most up to those hams that you set such store by. You'd better tell Bridget to climb over the heads of those barrels, and get the hams out before they are clean sp'iled." Before the last words had fairly left the doctor's mouth the old lady's cap-strings were seen flying towards the kitchen. "I shan't do it, for anybody," exclaimed the new help, as she placed her red arms a-kimbo. "I'm not going to risk my neck going over those tittlish barrels in that dark cellar, for all the hams that was ever cured." "You can carry a lamp with you," suggested the old lady. "I shan't do it, I tell you," said the vixen; "help is skerse out here in the country, and I can get a new place before sundown, if I like." "Katy!" screamed the old lady, with a shrill voice, "Katy!" Katy started from her corner and came out into the entry, in obedience to the summons. "Come here, Katy; Bridget is as contrary as a mule, and won't go into the cellar to get those hams. I cannot go in after 'em, nor the doctor either, so you must go in and bring them out yourself. Climb up on those barrel heads, and then feel your way along to the further corner; go right down the cellar-stairs now, quick." "Oh, I cannot! I _dare_ not!" said Katy, trembling and shrinking back, as the old lady pushed her along toward the cellar-door. "I'm _so_ afraid," said the child, peeping down the cellar-stairs, with distended eyes, "oh, _don't_ make me go down in that dark place, grandma." "Dark, pooh!" said the old lady; "what are you afraid of? rats? There are not more than half-a-dozen in the whole cellar." "Can't Bridget go?" asked Katy; "oh, I'm _so_ afraid." "Bridget _won't_, so there's an end of that, and I'm not going to lose a new girl I've just got, for your obstinacy; so go right down this minute, rats or no rats."