344 Which does the Mischief? 



the earth not higher than half the elevation of an 

 ordinary elm. It came up with great speed, and in a 

 moment I was completely drenched, and the field was 

 flooded. It did not seem so much to rain as to 

 descend in a solid sheet of water ; this lasted a very 

 short time, and immediately afterwards the storm 

 began to clear. Though not a perfect waterspout, it 

 was something very near it. The tree behind which 

 I had taken shelter stood near a large pond, or mere ; 

 and I thought at the time that that might have 

 attracted the cloud. The field quite ran with water, 

 as if suddenly irrigated, but the space thus flooded 

 was of small area about an acre. 



The haymakers sometimes talk of mysterious 

 noises heard in the very finest weather, when it is 

 still and calm, resembling extremely distant thunder. 

 They were convinced it was something ' in the ah* ; ' 

 but I feel certain it was the guns of the fleet exer- 

 cising at sea. In that case the sound of the explo- 

 sion must have travelled over fifty miles in a direct 

 line supposing it to come from the neighborhood of 

 the nearest naval station. I have found by observa- 

 tion that thunder cannot be heard nearly so far as 

 the sound of cannon. I doubt whether it is often 

 heard more than ten miles. Some of the old cottage 

 folk are still positive that it is not the lightning but 

 the thunder that splits the trees ; they ask if a great 

 noise does not make the windows rattle, and want to 

 know whether a still greater one may not rive an oak. 

 They allow, however, that the mischief is sometimes 

 done by a thunder-bolt. 



Cambridge : Press of John Wilson & Son. 



