AN ESCAPE. 125

“O dear me!” said Lucy; “we shall cer-
tainly be drowned.”

“QO, no” said Comfort ; “ there’s no danger of
being drowned. We can stay on this rock, safe,
till we contrive some way to get off.”

“O, no,” said Lucy ; “the water keeps rising
more and more, and it will cover us all up.”

“No,” said Comfort; ‘don’t you see that the
top of the rock is dry; and that proves it is not
covered when the gate is up, and the water runs
through as fast as it will.”

Comfort looked at the water. It was rising
very rapidly ; and they could see a torrent of it
come pouring down upon them from under the
mill, which threatened to raise it much higher.
Still Comfort was not afraid. She was confident
that it would not come higher than to cover that
part of the rock which was wet before, and so
that they were safe upon the dry part. And the
result was as she had anticipated. The water
continued to rise, but it rose more and more slow-
ly ; and when it arrived at the old high water
mark, — that is, the line where the rock had been
wet before,— it continued standing at that level.

“There,” said Comfort, “it won’t rise any
more now.”

11*