The rain come down like a
reg'lar deluge, but I didn't seem to have no ark to run to. As night
come on things got wuss and wuss, for the wind blowed the roof off
Mis Bascum's barn and stove in the butt'ry window; the brook riz and
went ragin' every which way, and you never did see such a piece of
work.
"My heart was most broke by that time, and I knew I should give in
'fore Monday. But I set and sewed and listened to the tinkle tankle
of the drops in the pans set round to ketch 'em, for the house
leaked like a sieve. Mis Bascurn was down suller putterin' about,
for every kag and sarce jar was afloat. Moses, her brother, was
lookin' after his stock and tryin' to stop the damage. All of a
sudden he bust in lookin' kinder wild, and settin' down the lantern,
he sez, sez he: 'You're ruthern an unfortinate woman to-night, Mis
Wilkins.' 'How so?' sez I, as ef nuthin' was the matter already.
"'Why,' sez he, 'the spilins have give way up in the rayvine, and
the brook 's come down like a river, upsot your lean-to, washed the
mellion patch slap into the road, and while your husband was tryin'
to git the pig out of the pen, the water took a turn and swep him
away.'
"'Drownded?' sez I, with only breath enough for that one word.
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