Water, Water, Everywhere

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 51, 14 June 1940, Page 10

Water, Water, Everywhere

HE hens were up the trees and in the coalhouse, and the ducks were floating round and round in their yard, in the height of enjoyment. .. The water was a solid block under the house. I watched the

front door. My mother met the water with a broom at the back. "Do you think this will do any good?" she said, and made a sweeping movement. They put the table on four syrup tins, and the settee on top of that. They brought in a stretcher and set the armchair on top of that. They raised the piano on boxes and lifted linoleums and carpets.

Then we sat at the fire, with covers on our shoes, then with gumboots on. Finally my mother and I, with the bedding, went into the attics, which we had recently arranged to have removed, as being old fashioned. My stepfather had on waders, and our guest seated himself in the easy chair on the ‘stretcher. There he sat enthroned until the morning. The fire went out. A haystack ran into a power-pole, and the lights went out, but my stepfather had thoughtfully provided himself with a storm lantern that afternoon. We, upstairs, heard the urgent gurgling sound of the waters in our home; the men packing the furniture higher as the flood demanded and the means allowed, They spoke low and earnestly and measured the tide on the wall of my mother’s best room.-(From "The Flood in Lower Taieri," by Miss Thelma Smith, 4YA, May 24.)