158 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



scene at about six o'clock a big cloud rose up from the 

 south-east and grew and grew until it covered half the 

 entire heavens with its blackness ; and as it spread 

 higher and nearer the thunder heard at intervals 

 increased in power and was more frequent, accom- 

 panied with vivid flashes of forked lightning which, 

 one would imagine, would have sent the people in 

 terror to their homes. For a very little more and the 

 storm would be directly over us and the whole crowd 

 deluged with rain. But though it remained near us 

 for about an hour and a half, without losing that black, 

 exceedingly threatening aspect, with occasional little 

 tempests of rain, it did not quite reach us, and I then 

 noticed, when strolling about the ground, that there 

 was not the slightest appearance of apprehension or 

 nervousness in the people. The fun and frolic con- 

 tinued without a break through it all until, at nine 

 o'clock, the people dispersed to their homes. 



Now I can imagine that the people I had been staying 

 with on those cold, harsh moors in Derbyshire would 

 have stared and gasped with astonishment at such a 

 scene, and would perhaps have refused to believe that 

 it was an everyday scene in that place, that this was 

 how the people spent their summer evening after each 

 day's work. I can imagine, too, that some nona- 

 genarian or centenarian, who had from his youth 

 dreamed of a freer, sweeter, more joyous life for the 

 people of his country, on coming down from some 

 such unchanged district as the one just mentioned 

 and looking upon the scene I have described, would 



