A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 12$ 



overhead in deepening blots of gloom. Low in the 

 south all was undistinguished grey, but for some faint 

 horizontal bars of darker vapour. As I watched these 

 a glint of fire, very pale and weak, more felt than 

 seen, winked from under the grey streaks, and de- 

 clared storm in the doubtful elements. After some 

 minutes, while the clouds overhead massed themselves 

 with imperceptible motion, the horizontal yellow 

 flicker came again, repeated instantly by another 

 gleam round in the west. Then in the hedge beside 

 me fell a few large drops slap, slap ; and far off in 

 the valley the wind began to sound in the trees. As 

 I reached the house, after a hasty round of barn 

 doors and frame sashes of late left wide, a rustling 

 breeze drew all at once through the garden, bringing 

 the rain with it in gusty sheets. For half an hour 

 the lightning blazed through the steady fall, with 

 that long pulsating flicker that turns all the streaming 

 air to blue fire and reveals terrific cloud-scapes, 

 mountains and cataracts of vapour tossed and 

 writhing with the energy of the storm. One may 

 generally foretell the seventy of a storm coming 

 on at nightfall by the frequency of the distant 

 flashes, before the thunder is heard what people 

 call "summer-lightning." In this case the thunder 

 died away rapidly, the storm passing to the 



