CORN AND BEANS, ETC. 347 



charge. In a moment it comes. At first the 

 shock seems terrible. Every branch bends low. 

 Dead limbs rattle down like hail. Leaves torn 

 away fly wildly through the air. But the sturdy 

 trunks stand their ground, and the baffled tem- 

 pest passes on. Mingling with the rush of the 

 wind and reverberations of thunder, a new 

 sound, a new part now enters into the grand 

 harmony. At first it is a low, continuous roar, 

 caused by the falling rain upon the leaves. It 

 grows louder fast, like the pattering feet of a 

 coming multitude. Then the great drops fall 

 around, yards apart, like scattering shots. 

 They grow closer, and soon a streaming torrent 

 drives you to shelter. The next heavy peal is 

 to the eastward, showing that the bulk of the 

 shower is past. The roar of the thunder dies 

 away down the river. The thickly falling rain 

 contracts your vision to a narrow circle, out of 

 which Cozzens's great hotel and Bear Mountain 



