Part twelve: The gnome

The Raft

The floor of the old schoolhouse groaned and creaked, as floodwater came in the doorway and seeped through the floorboards.

“I don’t know if this building is anchored. Is the stone fireplace heavy enough to hold it?” asked Timothy O’Leary, the good leprechaun-cobbler. “This may be a floating schoolhouse, shortly.”

“There are enough logs in these tables and benches to build a raft,” suggested Prince.  “We are going to need one if this building breaks up. It might float towards the river. If that happens, our fate is sealed, unless we have a raft.”

The floodwater was moving that direction.

“What can I do?” asked Kelly who was anxious to do help.

“Find everything we can use, or eat,” suggested Prince. He was no longer a frog, but an intelligent, take-charge kind of young man.

He could see the love and joy, coupled with fear in Kelly’s eyes.

“I’ll take care of you, Kelly,” he said, softly. “We need to keep the fire going and our terrier needs a name.”

“Is there a cast-iron school bell, in the belfry?” asked Timothy, climbing the wooden ladder, to the loft. He soon had the bell chiming. “Someone may hear the bell, if we ring it!”

“We can use the ladder,” thought Prince. “We should be able to use that rope and bell, too.”

Prince dismantled all of the log tables and benches. Then, he carried the logs outside and started to build the raft. He knew that if the schoolhouse started to break up, they would have to get on it very quickly.

Under his guidance, Kelly tied everything to the raft.   

“We’ll call you Ambrose, meaning divine. You came to us by divine intervention,” she said to the pup.

Prince smiled and nodded, in agreement.

They did not know help was on the way. A gnome from a mine in the mountains had spotted the smoke billowing from the schoolhouse in the flooded area. He immediately headed for Killarney to try to find a boat that knowing time was of the essence.

“Can I make it in time?” he wondered.