6/18 But he soon found the most he could do was to keep his head above water, and gave himself up for lost. Gibbie heard her as he came down the hill, and ran at full speed towards the cottage. He got into the middle of it, and there remained trembling, the weak branches breaking with every motion he made, while the stream worked at the roots, and the wind laid hold of him with fierce leverage. In terror, seeming still to sink as he sat, he watched the trees dart by like battering-rams in the swiftest of the current: the least of them diverging would tear the elder tree with it. |