ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 99 



legs, and handling and swallowing pretty 

 large specimens with surprising dexterity. 

 I was greatly pleased with them, as well 

 as with their local name, "everybody's 

 chickens." 



Once I feared we had heard the last of 

 them. On a day following a sudden fall 

 of the mercury, a gale from the north set 

 in at noon, with thunder and lightning, 

 hail, and torrents of rain. The river was 

 quickly lashed into foam, and the gale 

 drove the ocean into it through the inlet, 

 till the shrubbery of the rails' island barely 

 showed above the breakers. The street was 

 deep under water, and fears were enter- 

 tained for the new bridge and the road to 

 the beach. All night the gale continued, 

 and all the next day till late in the after- 

 noon ; and when the river should have been 

 at low tide, the island was still flooded. 

 Gravitation was overmatched for the time 

 being. And where were the rails, I asked 

 myself. They could swim, no doubt, when 

 put to it, but it seemed impossible that 

 they could survive so fierce an inundation. 

 Well, the wind ceased, the tide went out 

 at last; and behold, the rails were in full 



