142 Fairy Tales

The rains of course had swollen the water,
which came swirling down so swiftly that
Barthel could hardly tear himself away from
the joy of seeing it rush under the bridge,
though Joan called to him to make haste,
and Ju-Ju, who was extremely cross at
having to come at all, stuck his impertinent
little nose in the air and sniffed contemp-
tuously.

But once in the hen-house they all found .
it delightful. There was a delicious smell
of hay to begin with, it was warm and snug,
there were all the dark corners to be peeped
into, and the excitement of discoveries, while
it amused Ju-Ju immensely to see the old
hens fly up to the rafters with cackles of
terror. So that, for one reason and another,
they stayed at least twice as long as was
necessary, and it was only an odd sort of
gurgling noise which made Joan run to the
door at last. When she got there she
shrieked, and with some reason, for what
had been land and pretty garden was now
a raging river. The bridge was gone,