FOUNDER OF HIS RACE 123 



earth, and the rain fell unceasingly. There seemed no 

 end to it ! 



Creek and river beds lost all identity ; mountains were 



obscured in the downpour. In lowlands, beaver meadows 



and swampy places the water rose, and kept rising. 



Mountain streams became torrents, creeks became rivers. 



It was a deluge! 



Birds, drenched through their feathers, starved and 

 fell to the earth, chilled to death; insects were washed 

 out of the air; late-hatched broods of wild ducks were 

 drowned and the eggs of wild-fowl floated on the sur- 

 face of the waters. 



Weasels, stoats and such creatures as could swim 

 reached higher ground and for a short time saved their 

 lives. Cattle, which had sought slightly dryer quarters 

 on hillocks, were drowned as they called aloud, piteously, 

 for help. Field-mice, rabbits and moles were suffocated 

 in the rain-sodden earth. Foxes climbed into bushes to 

 await the going down of the waters and were drowned, 

 or starved to death, waiting. 



This was the year men praised the Lord for direct- 

 ing them to build their towns on hills, for they were 

 thus above the valley floods that poured towards the 

 Connecticut or the lake. But all about their homes the 

 pine-needles and underbrush held the w^ater like a 

 sponge. 



On one of the very worst nights of the "flood" Samuel 

 Stone set out to help a neighbor rescue his cattle. 



Stone apologized to Morgan for taking him out on 

 such a night, with thunder and lightning so terrible. 



" Tis hard to go out in such weather, Pony, but we 

 must help our neighbors in their troubles, else when we 

 are in straits they will not come to us !" 



The dense blackness and silence that followed the rapid 

 flashes of orange lightning and roaring thunder— and 



