rosin.  So yesterday we tried making candles.  “We had no molds, but Annie said the latest style in Natchez was to make a waxen rope by dipping, then wrap it round a corn-cob.  But H. cut smooth blocks of wood about four inches square, into which he set a polished cylinder about four inches high.  The waxen ropes were coiled round the cylinder like a serpent, with the head raised about two inches; as the light burned down to the cylinder, more of the rope was unwound.  To-day the vinegar was found to be all gone and we have started to make some.  For tyros we succeed pretty well.”

VIII.

DROWNED OUT AND STARVED OUT.

May 9, 1862.—­A great misfortune has come upon us all.  For several days every one has been uneasy about the unusual rise of the Mississippi and about a rumor that the Federal forces had cut levees above to swamp the country.  There is a slight levee back of the village, and H. went yesterday to examine it.  It looked strong and we hoped for the best.  About dawn this morning a strange gurgle woke me.  It had a pleasing, lulling effect.  I could not fully rouse at first, but curiosity conquered at last, and I called H.

“Listen to that running water; what is it?” He sprung up, listened a second, and shouted:  “Max, get up!  The water is on us!” They both rushed off to the lake for the skiff.  The levee had not broken.  The water was running clean over it and through the garden fence so rapidly that by the time I dressed and got outside Max was paddling the pirogue they had brought in among the pea-vines, gathering all the ripe peas left above the water.  We had enjoyed one mess and he vowed we should have another.

H. was busy nailing a raft together while he had a dry place to stand on.  Annie and I, with Reeney, had to secure the chickens, and the back piazza was given up to them.  By the time a hasty breakfast was eaten the water was in the kitchen.  The stove and everything there had to be put up in the dining-room.  Aunt Judy and Reeney had likewise to move into the house, their floor also being covered with water.  The raft had to be floated to the store-house and a platform built, on which everything was elevated.  At evening we looked round and counted the cost.  The garden was utterly gone.  Last evening we had walked round the strawberry beds that fringed the whole acre and tasted a few just ripe.  The hives were swamped.  Many of the chickens were drowned.  Sancho had been sent to high ground where he could get grass.  In the village every green thing was swept away.  Yet we were better off than many others; for this house, being raised, we have escaped the water indoors.  It just laves the edge of the galleries.