

384 THE ADIEOKDACK. 



thunder-peals that followed were awful, rolling along 

 the trembling heavens with a loose and reckless power 

 I had never before heard. The sound was like that of 

 ten thousand chariots driven furiously along subter- 

 ranean arches. Heavy thunder early in the morning is 

 not common, and I have always noticed, whether at sea 

 or on shore, that it has a different sound from thunder 

 in the afternoon. The mighty claps, instead of coming 

 in one great mass of compact sound, seemed broken, and 

 the fragments tumbled along the sky with a strange, 

 unearthly clamor. 



As the cloud slowly rose in the heavens, I heard in the 

 far-off forest the rush and roar of the advancing storm. 

 I looked at the tent, and thought it would be carried 

 away in the gale; but that did not disturb me so much 

 as those tall dry hemlock stubs, that had evidently 

 before felt the lightning's stroke. They seemed on that 

 solitary point like so many conductors to lead the fluid 

 down into our very midst. I confess to a very uncom- 

 fortable feeling as I watched their blighted tops, expect- 

 ing every moment to see them shivered into a thousand 

 fragments. A moment after, I caught the steady rush- 

 ing sound of the rain as it came sweeping over the bend- 

 ing tree-tops, and the next minute the great big drops 



