when all was over, the sense of glorious clarified air 

 and scoured earth the smell of a new-washed world ! 



And the things that one saw went with the rest, 

 marking the stages of the storm's short vivid life. 

 The first puffs of dust, where drops struck like bullets ; 

 the cloud that rose to meet them ; the drops them- 

 selves that streaked slanting down like a flight of 

 steel ramrods ; the dust dissolved in a dado of splash. 

 I had seen the yellow-brown ground change colour ; 

 in a few seconds it was damp ; then mud ; then all 

 asheen. A minute more, and busy little trickles 

 started everywhere tiny things a few inches long ; 

 and while one watched them they joined and merged, 

 hurrying on with twist and turn, but ever onward to 

 a given point to meet like the veins in a leaf. Each 

 tuft of grass became a fountain-head : each space 

 between, a little rivulet : swelling rapidly, racing away 

 with its burden of leaf and twig and dust and foam 

 until in a few minutes all were lost in one sheet of 

 moving water. 



Crouching under the waggon I watched it and saw 

 the little streamlets, dirty and debris-laden, steal 

 slowly on like sluggard snakes down to my feet, and 

 winding round me, meet beyond and hasten on. 

 Soon the grass-tufts and higher spots were wet ; and 

 as the water rose on my boots and the splash beat up 

 to my knees, it seemed worth while making for the 

 tent of the waggon. But in there the roar was deafen- 

 ing ; the rain beat down with such force that it drove 

 through the canvas-covered waggon-tent and greased 

 buck-sail in fine mist. In there it was black dark, 



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