116 STORM STAYED. 



far, what had been yesterday but a tiny jet of spray, 

 stretching like a white thread from top to bottom, was 

 now one broad sheet of foam, pouring furiously over its 

 surface, and taking the whole distance in three or four 

 tremendous leaps; while countless minor streams 

 spread and crossed in every direction, like a veil of fine 

 lace covering the features of a dark beauty. Though 

 fully a mile distant, their combined voices seemed to 

 reach my ear above the sound of the rain. In other 

 quarters too I could distinguish similar changes ; burns 

 had grown into rivers, and the river itself was swollen 

 in proportion. While I was marking all this, in mood 

 disconsolate, the shepherd emerged from his cottage 

 with the remark, sympathetic, but not consolatory, 

 " 'Deed, sir, but the day's no that promising." " I am 

 afraid, Korie, it promises only disappointment;" was 

 the only rejoinder I could make. 



We were now all speedily aroused, and a council of 

 war held. We decided that the first step must be to 

 break our fast ; the second, to examine our arsenal, 

 clean what needed it ; and then, should the day be still 

 unfavourable, to amuse ourselves as best we might, by 

 listening to the fox-hunter's tales of adventure, of 

 which I was assured he had a goodly store. 



The guns on inspection proved to be very foul; 

 being all loaded with ball, and having on the previous 

 evening been left just as we had brought them home ; 

 but though then quite clean and fit for immediate use, 

 the rain of the night had rusted them very much, 

 besides damping the powder. The process of cleaning, 

 and our breakfast, occupied an hour or more ; and 

 then, the prospect being still gloomy as it could well be, 

 we called upon the fox-hunter to draw from the 

 treasures of his memory " things new and old." 



