"Come, Frederick," said David, in a firm voice, "the Marquis de Pont Brillant, like us is going to the help of the unfortunate farmer. It is brave and generous of him. Now is the time for you to envy, to be jealous of the young marquis indeed!" "Oh, I will get there before he does!" exclaimed Frederick, with an indescribable exaltation. "To your oars, my child! One last thought of your mother, and forward! The hour has come." So saying, David disengaged his boat-hook from the entanglement of the branches of the poplar-trees. The little boat, set in movement by the vigorous motion of the oars, in a few minutes arrived in the middle of the current it must cross in order to reach the farmhouse. CHAPTER XXX. Then began a terrible, obstinate struggle against the dangers threatened by the elements of nature. While Frederick rowed with incredible energy, over-excited at the sight of the canoe of the marquis, on which from time to time he would cast a look of generous emulation, David, sitting in front of the boat, guarded it from shocks with an address and presence of mind which was marvellous. Already he had approached the farmhouse near enough to see distinctly the unfortunate family clinging to the roof, when an enormous stack of straw, carried by the waters, advanced on the right of the boat, which presented to the obstacle its breadth in cutting the current. "Double your strokes, Frederick!" cried David. "Courage! let us avoid that stack of straw." The son of Madame Bastien obeyed. Already the prow of the little boat had gone beyond the stack of straw, which was not more than ten steps distant, when the young man, stiffening his arm as he threw himself violently back, so as to give more power to his stroke, made too sudden a movement, and broke his right oar. Soon, the left oar forming a lever, the boat turned about, and, instead of her breadth, presented her prow to the stack, which threatened to engulf her beneath its weight. David, surprised by the sudden jolt, lost for a moment his equilibrium, but had time to cry: "Row firmly with the oar left to you." Frederick obeyed more by instinct than by reflection. The little boat turned again, presented its breadth, and, half raised by the eddy around the spheroid mass which had already touched the prow, swung on the single oar as if it had been a pivot, thus describing a half circle around the floating obstruction, and escaping from it in such a way as to receive only a slight shock. While all this was taking place with the rapidity of thought, David, seizing a spare oar from the bottom of the boat, fixed it in the thole, saying to Frederick, who was excited by the frightful danger he had just escaped: "Take this new oar and go forward; the canoe is gaining on us." Frederick seized the oar, at the same time throwing a glance on the craft of the young marquis. It was going directly toward the farmhouse, standing in the current, while the little boat was cutting it crosswise.