the Riverbank, and tethered her where she could eat the weeds in the vegetable patch.
âSheâll eat those cabbages somehow,â said Duck. âLook at her looking at them.â
We were pulling up all the cabbages near her when Robin came out. âOh good,â she said. âPull enough for at least a week. I think the floods will be right up here by tomorrow. They feel enormous.â
We ran around picking cabbages and onions and the last of the carrots and dumped them on the floor of the scullery.
âNo,â said Robin. âUp on the shelves. The waterâs coming in here.â
She is the eldest, and she knows the River best. We did as she said. By this time it was getting dark. The River was making a long, rumbling sound. I watched it while Robin milked the cow. There was brown water as strong as the muscles in your leg piling through between the banks. The mud was covered already. I could see the line of yellow froth bubbles rising under the bank as I watched. The color of the water was yellower and yellower, as it always is in the floods, but it was a dark yellow, which is not usual. The air was full of the clean, earthy smell the floods bring. I thought it was stronger than usual, and sharper.
âThereâs been different weather up in the mountains where the River comes from, thatâs all,â Hern said crossly. âShall I wake Gull up and give him some milk?â
Gull was so fast asleep that we could not wake him. We left him and had supper ourselves. We felt strangeâhalf excited because of the rumble of the water outside, half heavy with misery. We wanted sweet things to eat, but when we had them, we found we wanted salt. We were trying to make Robin cook some of the pickled trout when we heard an odd noise. We stopped talking and listened. At first there was only the River, booming and rushing. Then we heard someone scratching on the back doorâscratching, not knocking.
âIâll go,â said Hern, and he seized the carving knife on his way to the back door.
He opened it and there was Uncle Kestrel again, half in the dark, with his finger to his mouth for quiet. We twisted round in our seats and looked at him as he limped in. He had neatened himself up since he was last here, but he was still shaking.
âI thought you were the Heathen,â Hern said.
âTheyâd be better company for you,â said Uncle Kestrel. He smiled. He took a jam tart from Robin and said, âThanks, my love,â but that did not seem natural any longer. He was frightening. âZwittâs been at my house,â he said, âcalling your family Heathen enchanters.â
âWeâre not,â said Duck. âEveryone knows weâre not!â
âDo they?â asked Uncle Kestrel. He leaned forward over the table, so that the lamp caught a huge bent shadow of him and threw it trembling on the wall, across shelves and cups and plates. It looked so threatening with its long, wavering nose and chin that I think I watched it most of the time. It still scares me. âDo they?â said Uncle Kestrel. âThere are men in Shelling who have seen Heathens with their own eyes, and who remember your motherâlovely girl she was, my Robinâlooked just like the Heathen. Then Zwitt says you dealt ungodly with the Riverââ
âThatâs nonsense!â Hern said. He got angrier with everything Uncle Kestrel said. It was good of Uncle Kestrel not to take offense.
âYou should have gone over to the old mill by night, lad,â he said, âlike I do when I go for mussels. And itâs a pity neither you nor your cow got the sickness the River sent.â
âBut we all got it!â Robin protested. âDuck was sick all one night.â
âBut he lived when others his age died,â said Uncle Kestrel. âThereâs no arguing with Zwitt, Robin, apple of my eye. He has the whole of Shelling behind him. If