The Story of the Rainbow. 63

 

finished, and Noah took into it all the crea-
tures that the Lord God had told him to
take, and then went in himself with his wife
and family.

“Very likely the wicked men mocked the
more at that, when they saw Noah and his
family enter into their ship on dry land; and
a week went by, and nothing happened. And
then, in the midst of the feasting and merri-
ment and wickedness, came the terrible end -
of it all; there came on a wonderful deluge
of rain, and the sea rolled in great waves
upon the land, farther and farther, till all the
cities and fields and mountains were covered
with water, and all living creatures that lived
upon the land perished in the waves.

“But over the flood the ark went floating,
quite safely, though it must have been terrible
for those inside to hear the rush of waters
above and the dashing of the sea below, and
to know that underneath those waves a whole
world lay buried.

“For forty days the rushing torrents of
rain went on, never stopping day and night ;
then that sound ceased, and all was still.
There was a great silence outside the ark, for
all voices were hushed in death, and every-
where spread a great endless sea. And fora