78 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



Annette cried as if her heart would break,, and she en- 

 treated her father to go to the aid of the old man. l ' My 

 child, I would go willingly/'' replied her father ; " but it is 

 impossible. See you not how the torrent is raging, how 

 it whirls that strong tree round and round ? " 



But the old man was saved, yet not by human hand. 

 He was awoke from his sleep by the plaintive voice of one 

 of those warning birds which had taken shelter in the 

 branches of his favourite tree, and which utter their loud 

 cries when storms of winds or tempests are abroad. He 

 heard the rushing of the flood ; and when he looked from 

 the hut, he saw, by the clear light of the moon, that his 

 situation was all but hopeless. Committing himself, there- 

 fore, to the protection of Heaven, he climbed to the top of 

 his hut ; and when the waters increased to where he stood, 

 he caught hold of a drooping oak-branch, and gained the 

 topmost bough of the friendly tree. Many a tree fell that 

 night, "loud crashing, thundering down," and was borne 

 away by the mighty torrents, like a reed broken with the 



