108 THE ADIRONDACK. 



then swept by in a sudden gust, which whirled the 

 leaves and withered branches in wild confusion 

 through the air. An ominous hush succeeded, while 

 the low growl of the distant thunder seemed forced 

 from the deepest caverns of the mountain. 



I lay and watched the gathering elements of 

 strength and fury, as the trumpet of the storm sum- 

 moned them to battle, till at length the lightning be- 

 gan to leap in angry flashes to the earth from the 

 dark womb of the cloud, followed by those awful and 

 rapid reports that seemed to shake the very walls of 

 the sky. The pine trees rocked and roared above me 

 — for wrath and rage had taken the place of beauty 

 and placidity — and then the rain came in headlong 

 masses to the earth. Keeping under my shelter of 

 bark, I listened to the uproar without, as I had often 

 done under an Alpine cliff in the Oberland, waiting 

 for the passage of the storm. In a short time its fury 

 was spent, and I could hear its retiring roar in the 

 distant gorges. The trees stopped knocking their 

 green crowns together, and stood again in fraternal 

 embrace, while the rapid dripping of the heavy rain 

 drops from the leaves, alone told of the deluge that 

 had swept overhead. I stole forth again, and but for 



o •- 



