Page:The Swiss Family Robinson, In Words of One Syllable.djvu/73

Rh The fear that the rain might come and put a stop to our work led us to take our meals in haste, and to make the days as long as we could see. We knew that the rain was close at hand, for the nights were cold; large clouds could be seen in the sky, and the wind blew as we had not felt it since the night our ship struck on the rock.

The great change came at last. One night we were woke up out of our sleep with the noise made by the rush of the winds through the woods, and we could hear the loud roar of the sea far off. Then the dense storm clouds which we had seen in the sky burst on us, and the rain came down in floods. The streams, pools, and ponds on all sides were soon full, and the whole plain round us met our view as one vast lake. By good luck, the site of our house stood up out of the flood, and our group of trees had the look of a small isle in the midst of the lake.

We soon found that The Nest was not built so well as we thought, for the rain came in at the sides, and we had good cause to fear that the wind would blow the roof off. Once the storm made such a rush at it, that we heard the beams creak, and the planks gave signs that there was more strain on them than they could bear. This drove us from our room to the stairs in the trunk, on which we sat in a state of fear till the worst of the storm was