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[6] I didn't understand, since I'd never owned anything I cared all that much about. Still, planning for disaster held considerable fascination for me.
[7] The plan was to move upstairs if the river reached the seventh of the steps that led to the front porch. We would keep a rowboat downstairs so we could get from room to room. The one thing we would not do was leave the house. My father, the town's only doctor, had to be where sick people could find him.
[8] I checked on the river's rise several times a day and lived in a state of hopeful alarm that the water would climb all the way up to the house. It did not disappoint. The muddy water rose higher until, at last, the critical seventh step was reached.
[9] We worked for days carrying things upstairs, until, late one afternoon, the water edged over the threshold and rushed into the house. I watched, amazed at how rapidly it rose.
[10] After the water got about a foot deep inside the house, it was hard to sleep at night. The sound of the river moving about downstairs was frightening. Debris had broken windows, so every once in a while some floating battering ram--a log or perhaps a table--would bang into the walls and make a sound like a distant drum.
我當時并不懂得她的意思，因為我從未擁有過什么能令我如此珍愛的器皿。不過，為了防備遭受災難而出謀劃策使我興趣盎然。
家里的計劃是，如果河水上漲到通向前廊的第七級臺階，我們就搬到樓上去。我們將在樓下系一條劃艇，以便能夠從一個房間劃到另一個房間。我們就是不愿意離開自己的家園。我爸爸是鎮上唯一的一名大夫，他得守在病人能找到他的地方。
我每天查看幾次河水上漲的情況，并驚恐地預料河水會一直漫進屋里。果然不出所料，渾濁的河水竟不斷地高漲，終于淹到了至關重要的第七級臺階。
連著幾天，我們忙于把東西搬到樓上，有一天一直忙到下午五六點鐘，河水徐徐地漫過門檻，沖進屋里。我監視著，發現河水上漲的速度快得令人驚訝。
當屋里的積水深達一英尺時，晚上就很難睡個安穩覺了。河水在樓下撞擊的聲音叫人驚恐萬分。隨水沖進來的碎石片擊碎了窗戶玻璃，偶爾，飄浮在水上的撞擊物——一根圓木，也有可能是一張桌子----會猛烈地撞到墻上，發出的聲音像是遠方傳來的鼓聲。
