242 FIELD 8HOOTIN0. 



near me, 1 soon fell asleep. It was a still night, 

 no air stirring even on the open prairie where I 

 was when I went to rest. But about one o'clock 

 there arose a strong wind, the forerunner of a 

 mighty storm. 



Awakened by the change in the weather. I got 

 up, and, looking to windward, saw an immense 

 black cloud looming high up towards the zenith, 

 and coming on at a rapid rate towards the prairie. 

 Knowing very well What it meant, and seeing the 

 forked lightning already darting down from it, 

 while the rumble of the distant thunder overbore 

 the rushing of the wind, I piled up a lot of hay 

 around the buggy to windward, and got under it 

 again. 1 had not been there many minutes when 

 the storm burst with fearful fury, seemingly right 

 over my head. Then came lightning, thunder, and 

 torrents of rain altogether, as it were. The light- 

 ning was so vivid and so rapid that the horse 

 got scared and trembled, the dogs cowered and 

 crept closer to me, and I was much alarmed. The 

 lightning ran round the tires of the wheels, so 

 that the wagon seemed to be shod with fire. It 

 lit up the prairie at every flash, and the flashes 

 were almost continuous, so that I could see 

 white houses five or six miles off as plain, or 



