consequence, claiming a large share of all the honors going.

"Well, after the rain had continued falling for a number of days, and
the valleys were all full of water, and the angry surges went roaring,
with the voice of ten thousand thunders, high up along the sides of
the hills, one of these pestilent fellows--deriding the miraculous
exhibition going on all around him--undertook, in his self-conceit, to
lead the people to a place of safety. So he selected a lofty peak that
shot up from a range of mountains, and commenced travelling up its
steep acclivities. But the flood followed him, roaring, and boiling,
and heaving, in its onward rush. Day by day, night by night, it crept
up, and up, higher and higher, until the self-confident leader, who
scoffed at the supernatural warning, had but a mighty small place
above the surge, whereon to shelter himself from the destruction that
surrounded him. About that time the Ark, with Noah and his people, all
safe and snug, came drifting that way.

"'Halloo!' says the occupant of the rock, 'send us a boat, and take
us aboard. The freshet is getting pretty bad, and it is getting a
little damp, up here.'

"'I can't do it,' says Noah, 'my craft is full of better people.'

"'But,' says the applicant for admission into the Ark, 'let me in, and
I'll superintend the navigation. I'll man the wheel, and see that the
sails are all right, and we can pick up a deal of floating plunder as
we go along.'

"'Can't do it,' says Noah, 'we've got a good steersman and safe
navigators on board already.'