It is needless to say that
the Crambry family was on hand, for whatever instincts they may have lacked,
the instinct for being on the spot when anything was happening, was present in
them to the most remarkable extent. The town was supporting them in modest
winter quarters somewhat nearer than Killick to the center of civilization,
and the first alarm brought them promptly to the scene, Mrs. Crambry remarking
at intervals: "If I'd known there'd be so many out I'd ought to have worn my
bunnit; but I ain't got no bunnit, an' if I had they say I ain't got no head
to wear it on!"
By the time the jam neared the falls it had grown with its accumulations,
until it was made up of tier after tier of huge ice cakes, piled side by side
and one upon another, with heaps of trees and branches and drifting lumber
holding them in place. Some of the blocks stood erect and towered like
icebergs, and these, glittering in the lights of the twinkling lanterns,
pushed solemnly forward, cracking, crushing, and cutting everything in their
way. When the great mass neared the planing mill on the east shore the girls
covered their eyes, expecting to hear the crash of the falling building; but,
impelled by the force of some mysterious current, it shook itself ponderously,
and then, with one magnificent movement, slid up the river-bank, tier
following tier in grand confusion.
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