"We are drowning! Mamma! Battiste! Trine! We are drowning!" Then they no
longer used any words, but simply screamed, quite beside themselves with
terror. Schnurri barked and howled in sympathy, but Philomele scratched
and bit at everything within reach. Now the true character of the two
animals showed itself. The cat would not go out of the tub into the
water, and would not stay quietly in it, either, but fought like a mad
creature. But when the faithful dog found that, in spite of all the
screams and howls, no one came to their aid, he jumped into the water,
swam to the door, shook himself vigorously, and ran away. The children
screamed louder than ever, for the dog's movements had made the tub tip
back and forth, and they were well scared.

Dora had run down from her room, and was peeping through her opening in
the hedge, to try to find out the cause of these terrible cries. The
wash-house stood quite near the hedge, but she could not see anything
except the logs that carried the water to it from the spring. She heard
the cry "We are drowning!" and she ran back up-stairs, calling out,
breathless with fright,

"Aunt, aunt! two children are drowning over there! don't you hear them
call?"

Her aunt had closed all the windows, but the screams penetrated even to
her ears.

"Oh dear, what can that be?" she exclaimed, in the greatest alarm. "I hear
a terrible cry; but who says they are drowning? Mrs. Kurd! Mrs. Kurd! Mrs.
Kurd!"