90 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



to drop almost anywhere any minute. The alarm 

 and consternation of the wives communicated itself 

 to the husbands, and they looked solemn and con- 

 cerned. The air was filled with falling water. The 

 sound upon the myriad leaves and branches was like 

 the roar of a cataract. We put our backs up against 

 the great trees, only to catch a brook on our shoul- 

 ders or in the backs of our necks. Still the storm 

 waxed. The fire was beaten down lower and lower. 

 It surrendered one post after another, like a besieged 

 city, and finally made only a feeble resistance from 

 beneath a pile of charred logs and branches in the 

 centre. Our garments yielded to the encroachments 

 of the rain in about the same manner. I believe 

 my necktie held out the longest, and carried a few 

 dry threads safely through. Our cunningly devised 

 and bedecked table, which the housekeepers had so 

 doted on and which was ready spread for breakfast, 

 was washed as by the hose of a fire-engine, — only 

 the bare poles remained, — and the couch of spring- 

 ing boughs, that was to make Sleep jealous and o'er- 

 fond, became a bed fit only for amphibians. Still 

 the loosened floods came down ; still the great cloud- 

 mortars bellowed and exploded their missiles in 

 the treetops above us. But all nervousness finally 

 passed away, and we became dogged and resigned. 

 Our minds became water-soaked; our thoughts were 

 heavy and bedraggled. We were past the point of 

 joking at one another's expense. The witticisms 

 failed to kindle, — indeed, failed to go, like the 

 matches in our pockets. About midnight the rain 



