10.  All at once Roger’s course stopped.  He became an obstacle to the flood, which pressed him against some other obstacle below, and rushed over horse and rider.  Thrusting out his hand, Gilbert felt the rough bark of a tree.  Leaning towards it, and clasping the log in his arms, he drew himself from the saddle, while Roger, freed from his burden, struggled into the current and instantly disappeared. 11.  As nearly as Gilbert could ascertain, several timbers, thrown over each other, had lodged, probably upon a rocky islet in the stream, the uppermost one projecting slantingly out of the flood.  It required all his strength to resist the current which sucked, and whirled, and tugged at his body, and to climb high enough to escape its force, without overbalancing his support.  At last, though still half immerged, he found himself comparatively safe for a time, yet as far as ever from a final rescue.

12.  Yet a new danger now assailed him, from the increasing cold.  There was already a sting of frost, a breath of ice, in the wind.  In another hour the sky was nearly swept bare of clouds, and he could note the lapse of the night by the sinking of the moon.  But he was by this time hardly in a condition to note anything more.

Definitions.—­1.  In-ter’mi-na-ble, endless. 2.  De-pressed’, low-ered. 3.  Tur’bid, muddy. 5.  Dis-cerncd’ (pro. diz-zerned’), made out, distinguished. 6.  Seeth’ing, boiling, bubbling. 7.  Im-ped’ing, hindering, obstucting.  In-un-da’tion, a flood. 9.  On’set, a rushing upon, attack. 11.  Im-merged’, plunged under a liquid. 12.  Lapse, a gradual passing away.

LXXXVI.  BRANDYWINE FORD. (Concluded.) (242)

1.  The moon was low in the west, and there was a pale glimmer of the coming dawn in the sky, when Gilbert Potter suddenly raised his head.  Above the noise of the water and the whistle of the wind, he heard a familiar sound,—­the shrill, sharp neigh of a horse.  Lifting himself with great exertion, to a sitting posture, he saw two men, on horseback, in the flooded meadow, a little below him.  They stopped, seemed to consult, and presently drew nearer.

2.  Gilbert tried to shout, but the muscles of his throat were stiff, and his lungs refused to act.  The horse neighed again.  This time there was no mistake; it was Roger that he heard!  Voice came to him, and he cried aloud,—­a hoarse, strange, unnatural cry.

The horsemen heard it, and rapidly pushed up the bank, until they reached a point directly opposite to him.  The prospect of escape brought a thrill of life to his frame; he looked around and saw that the flood had indeed fallen.

3.  “We have no rope,” he heard one of the men say.  “How shall we reach him?”

“There is no time to get one now,” the other answered.  “My horse is stronger than yours.  I’ll go into the creek just below, where it’s broader and not so deep, and work my way up to him,”