STORM SCEXE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 127 



them, while the animal Nvoukl put forward his ears, as 

 if expecting soon to be very juuch alarmed ; and lastly, 

 to make all those signs certain, the rheumatic limbs of 

 an old Indian guide, who accompanied us, suddenly grew 

 lame, for he went limping upon his delicately formed 

 feet, and occasionally looking aloft with suspicious eyes, 

 he proclaimed, that there would be " storm too much ! " 



A storm in the forest is no trifling affair ; the tree 

 under which you shelter yourself may draw the light- 

 ning upon your head, or its ponderous limbs, pressed 

 upon by the winds, drag the heavy trunk to the earth, 

 crushing you with itself in its fall ; or some dead branch 

 that has for years protruded from among the green 

 foliage, may on the very occasion of your presence, fall 

 to the ground and destroy you. 



The rain too, which in the forest finds difficulty in 

 soaking into the earth, will in a few hours fill up the 

 ravines and water-courses, wash away the trail you may 

 be following, or destroy the road over which you 

 journey. 



All these things we were from experience aware of, 

 and as we were some distance from our journey's end, 

 and also from any " settlement," we pressed forward to 

 a " clearing," which was in our path, as a temporary 

 stopping-place, until the coming storm should have 

 pas.sed away. 



Our resting-place for the niglit wa.s on tiic banks of 

 the Mississippi; it consisted of a rude cabin in the cen- 



