"Alone! O no! Don"t let these men go and startle Mildred and the rest--"
"Thank G.o.d!" exclaimed Pastor Dendel.
The two men who were with him seemed about to raise a shout, and wave their hats, but the pastor forbade them by a gesture. He whispered to Oliver,--
"Mildred, and who else, my dear? We know nothing, you are aware. Your father--?"
"He was carried off in the mill,--out to the Humber--"
Oliver stopped, as he saw the men exchange a look of awe, which took his breath away again.
"We have something like news of your father too, Oliver. There is a rumour which makes us hope that he may be safe at a distance. Your mother believes it, as she will tell you. Is it possible that you are all alive, after such a calamity as this?"
"George is dead, sir. We buried him yesterday. Ailwin is here, with Mildred and me; and Roger Redfurn."
One of the men observed that he had hoped, as one good that would come of the flood, that the Levels were rid of the Redfurns.
"Do not say that," said Oliver. "Roger has helped us in many things; and he was kind to little George. Let me go, sir. I can walk now very well: and I want to tell them that you are come."
"Go, my boy: but do it gently, Oliver,--gently."
"That is what I want, sir,--that they should not see or hear you: for Mildred is ill,--and Roger too. Please keep out of sight till I come for you. So mother is safe,--really?"
"Really, and we will take you all to her."
Mildred, lying uncomfortably in the soaked cloth (for the rain had penetrated everything), was yet dozing,--now and then starting and calling out. Oliver took her hand, to wake her up, and asked her, with a smile, as she opened her eyes, whether she was dreaming of a boat again. Mildred believed not, but her head was sadly confused; so much so, that she heard of the boat which had really come, and the pastor and her parents, without showing any surprise or pleasure. Little ceremony was necessary with the strong Ailwin; and one of the men made short work with Roger, by lifting him and carrying him into the boat. Oliver said a word to the pastor about seeing George"s grave, and about the chest and the money-bag which belonged to somebody who might want them much.
The pastor took charge of the bag, but declared that everything else must be left for another trip, at a more leisure time. Mrs Linacre was waiting,--and in what a state of expectation!
While the two stout rowers were pulling rapidly away from the Red-hill, and in the direction of Gainsborough, the pastor explained to the party what they most wanted to know. Mrs Linacre had heard some rumour which alarmed her on the day of the flood, and had locked up her shed, and set out homewards when the waters gushed over her road, and compelled her to turn back. Like a mult.i.tude of others, as anxious and miserable as herself, she had ever since been wandering about in search of a boat, and imploring aid from every one she met.
For three days, it appeared as if there really were no boats in all the district. Some had certainly been swamped and broken by the rush of the flood: and there was great difficulty in bringing round from the coast such as could there be had from the fishermen. Some farmers on the hill had lent their oxen, to bring boats over the hills; and others, men to row them; and this was in time to save many lives. What number had been lost, it was impossible yet to say; but the cleverness and the hopefulness with which a mult.i.tude had struggled for life, during five days of hardship and peril were wonderful and admirable. Mrs Linacre had trusted in the power which G.o.d gives his children in such extremity, and had been persuaded throughout (except during short moments of despair), that she should see her husband and children again. In this persuasion she had been sustained by the pastor, from the moment of his finding her, after his own escape.
Of his own escape the pastor would say nothing at present. The children"s minds were too full now for such tales of wonder and of horror as they must hear hereafter. Neither would he permit a word on the origin of the flood. He said they must think as little as they could of the wicked deeds of men, in this hour of G.o.d"s mercy. One prayer, in every heart, that G.o.d would forgive all evil-minded men,--one such prayer let there be; and then, no more disturbing thoughts of enemies in the hour of preservation.
Oliver could not trust himself to ask, in the presence of strangers, what the rumour was, which the pastor had mentioned, about his father.
The pastor was very apt to understand what was stirring in people"s hearts; and he knew Oliver"s at this moment. He explained to him that a sailor had declared, on landing at Hull, that the ship in which he was had spoken with a Dutch vessel, off the Humber, in the night, by the light of lanterns only, when a voice was heard, as if from the deck of the Dutchman, crying out, "Will some one have the charity to tell the wife of Linacre of the Levels that he is saved?" The sailors had some fears about this voice--thought the message odd--fancied the voice was like what they should suppose a ghost"s to be; and at length, persuaded one another that it came, not from any ship, but from the air overhead; and that the message meant that Linacre was dead, and that his soul was saved. When they came ash.o.r.e, however, and found what had befallen the Levels, they began to doubt whether it was not, after all, the voice of a flesh and blood man that had called out to them. When the pastor now heard how the miller was floated off in his mill, he had little doubt of the good man having been picked up in the Humber, by a vessel sailing for Holland, which could not stop to set him ash.o.r.e, but which now contained him, safe and well. Within two months, he would be heard of or seen, it might fairly be hoped.
Mrs Linacre was kindly taken care of in a farm-house, near the spring-- that farm-house where she had often taken her copper money to be changed for silver: but she had been little within doors, day or night. She had paced all day by the brink of the flood; and as long as the moon was up, had sat at night on a rising ground, looking over the waters towards the Red-hill. She had discovered that the mill was gone, when other eyes could distinguish nothing so far off. No one had a gla.s.s to lend her-- so, at least, it was said; but some whispered that a gla.s.s might have been procured, but that it was thought she could see only what would distress her, and nothing that could do her any good.
She was on the brink of the water when the boat came near. She would have thrown herself in to meet her children, if a neighbour had not been there to hold her back.
Oliver"s first words to her were, that he believed his father was safe on his way to Holland, and would soon be coming back. The pastor"s first words were, as he placed Mildred in her arms--
"Two children are here restored to you. Will you not patiently resign your other little one?"
The speechless mother was hurrying away, with Mildred on her bosom, and drawing Oliver by the hand, which she clasped convulsively, when he said--
"Mother, help me to keep a promise I have made. Here is Roger Redfurn-- very ill. I promised we would not forsake him. Let him go with us, till he is well."
"Whatever you will, my boy; but do not leave me, Oliver,--not for a moment."
"Go on," said the pastor. "We are bringing Roger after you. We shall be at home as soon as you."
"Home," was the friendly farm-house. There, before the end of the day, had Oliver learned that his morning signal had been seen from the large boat; and that the reason why the large boat had rowed away was, not only that it was full, but that the waters were now too shallow about the Red-hill for any but small craft. Before the end of the day Mrs Linacre had been seen to look like herself once more; and Ailwin had told to the wondering neighbours the tale of the few days, which seemed now like years to look back upon. She told more than even Oliver had observed of the miserable state of their place of refuge, which would soon have been a place of death. Scarcely a breathing thing, she said, was left alive: and, in going to the boat, she had seen the soaked bee-hives upset, and the chilled bees lying about, as if there was no spirit left in them. She shuddered when she thought of the Red-hill.
Then she stimulated the farm-house people to take care of Roger,--a task in which Oliver left them little to do. They were willing enough, however; for Ailwin told them that though Roger had been an odd boy in his time, owing to his having been brought up by queer people, yet, considering that those people were drowned and gone, and that Roger had been noticed by a lord, she did not doubt he might turn out well, if it so pleased G.o.d.
How closely did Mildred clasp her mother"s neck that evening! Knowing nothing else, and feeling very strangely, she yet understood that she was in a place of shelter and comfort, and felt that her head rested on her mother"s bosom--on that pillow which has something so far better than all warmth and softness. By degrees she began to be aware that there was cool and fresh water, and sweet-smelling flowers, and that she was tenderly bathed, and laid to rest on a bed which was neither wet nor under a tree. There was a surprising silence all round her, she felt, as she grew stronger, which no one yet attempted to explain to her; but her mother smiled at her so happily, that she supposed she was recovering.
Mrs Linacre did look happy, even in the midst of her tears for her poor baby. Mildred _was_ recovering, Oliver ate and slept, and whistled under the window--like a light-hearted boy, as he once again amused himself with carving every piece of hard wood he could find. It was clear that he had escaped the fever; and every day that refreshed his colour, and filled out his thin face again, brought nearer the hour of his father"s return.