She had collected also a large quantity of gray moss with which to make a carpet for the springy floor.
"Now please don't tell brother Sam," she said when the boys praised her thoughtfulness and ingenuity.

"I want to surprise him when he comes." Tom and Joe promised, and Tom said they would have to call her their "little housekeeper" hereafter.
The river was still rising, but more slowly, it appeared, than it had done before.

By Tom's calculations it was coming up at the rate of an inch in three hours, wherefore Sam thought they might safely remain where they were until morning at least, while if the water should come to a stand during the night, they would have no occasion to move at all, as a fall would rapidly follow, if the weather should remain clear.
Joe had worked faithfully at the task of preparing the new place of refuge, but he was not at all satisfied with the arrangement.
"I tell you, Mas' Tom," he said, "wood'll float, 'thout 'tis live oak, an' dis here drif'-pile 'll jest raise up an' float away, you'll see if it don't." "Why hasn't it floated away long ago, then, Joe ?" asked Tom.
"May be it has.

How you know dis drif' didn't all on it come here las' time de river was up ?" "Well, there's too much of it for that, and besides, Sam says this place is safe, and you know he is always right about things when he speaks positively about them." "Mas' Tom, don' you know Mas' Sam done been a-talkin' nonsense for two weeks now ?" "Yes; but that's only when he's out of his head." "How you know when he's outen his head an' when he ain't ?" "We know he's out of his head when he talks nonsense." "Well, maybe dis here 's nonsense.

I jest knows it is, and dat's how I know Mas' Sam was outen his head when he said it." Tom saw that Joe was not to be convinced, and so he contented himself with saying, "Well, we'll see." "Yes, dat's jest it.