Day after day and night after night
the wind blew and the water splashed against the windows and poured from
the overflowing gutters. Patrick Henry, the pig, found his quarters
in the new pen, in the hollow behind the barn, the center of the flood
zone, and being discovered one morning marooned on a swampy islet in the
middle of a muddy lake, was transferred to the old sty, that built by
the late Mr. Laban Eldredge, beneath the woodshed and adjoining the
potato cellar. Thankful's orderly, neat soul rebelled against having
a pig under the house, but, as she expressed it, "'twas either that or
havin' the critter two foot under water."
Captain Obed, like every citizen of East Wellmouth, was disgusted with
the weather. "I was cal'latin' to put in my spare time down to the
shanty buildin' a new dory," he said, "but I guess now I'll build an ark
instead. If this downpour keeps on I'll need one bad as Noah ever did."
Heman Daniels, Miss Timpson and Caleb Hammond were now the only boarders
and roomers Mrs. Barnes had left to provide for. There was little or no
profit in providing for them, for the rates paid by the two last named
were not high, and their demands were at times almost unreasonable. Miss
Timpson had a new idea now, that of giving up the room she had occupied
since coming to the Barnes boarding-house and moving her belongings into
the suite at the rear of the second floor, that comprising the large
room and the little back bedroom adjoining, the latter the scene of
Thankful's spooky adventure on the first night of her arrival in East
Wellmouth.
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