i.M-1- THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



"And Pliny left his old mother behind in order 

 to get away the faster f ' ' queried Jules. 



"No, my child, he did what you would all have 

 done. He remained, sustaining and encouraging 

 her, resolved to save himself with her or else 

 die with her." 



"Good!" cried Jules. "The nephew was worthy 

 of his uncle. And then what happened?" 



"Then it was frightful. Cinders began to fall; 

 darkness descended, so intense that they could see 

 nothing. There was general confusion, outcry, and 

 moaning. Wild with terror, the people fled at ran- 

 dom, knocking down and treading on those who were 

 in their way. The greater part were convinced that 

 that night was the last, the eternal night that was 

 to swallow the world. Mothers went groping for 

 their children, lost in the crowd or perhaps crushed 

 under the feet of the fugitives; they called them 

 with doleful cries to embrace them once more 

 and then die. Pliny and his old mother had seated 

 themselves apart from the crowd. From time to 

 time they were obliged to get up and shake off the 

 cinders which would soon have buried them. At last 

 the cloud dispersed and daylight reappeared. The 

 earth was unrecognizable; everything had disap- 

 peared under a thick shroud of calcined dust." 



"And the houses, were they buried in the cin- 

 ders ? ' ' asked Emile. 



"At the foot of the mountain the dust thrown up 

 by the volcano lay deeper than the height of the tall- 

 est houses, and whole towns had disappeared under 



