176 THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



utmost to meet," said Claire, to fix the facts in her 

 mind. "That of the ground, in its effort to reach 

 the cloud, gains the top of a tall tree; that of the 

 cloud, on its side, is impelled downward toward the 

 tree. Then comes the moment when the two elec- 

 tricities, still attracting each other but no longer 

 having a road open for their peaceful reunion, rush 

 together with a crash. Then the -streak of fire can't 

 help reaching the tree. Is that it, Uncle 1 ' ' 



"My dear child, I could not have put it better my- 

 self. That is why, in fact, high buildings, towers, 

 steeples, tall trees, are the points most exposed to 

 fire from heaven. In the open country it would be 

 very imprudent, during a storm to seek refuge from 

 rain under a tree, especially a tall and isolated one. 

 If the thunderbolt is to fall in the neighborhood, it 

 will preferably be upon that tree, which forms a 

 high point where the electricity of the ground ac- 

 cumulates, to get as near as possible to that of the 

 cloud attracting it. The sad and deplorable in- 

 stances every year of persons struck by lightning 

 are for the most part confined to the imprudent who 

 seek shelter from the rain under a tall tree." 



"If you had not known about these things, Un- 

 cle," Jules here remarked, "we should have been 

 killed the day of the storm, when I wanted to get 

 under the tall pine-tree." 



"It is very doubtful whether the thunderbolt, in 

 destroying the tree, would have spared us. It is 

 impious boldness to expose one's self to peril with- 

 out a motive, and then to throw upon Providence the 

 task of extricating us from our perilous situation. 



