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the old saying, it is, I am afraid, only too often the 

 case of any tree in a storm. I can conceive, say, a 

 husband and wife in a moment of panic flying for 

 shelter, the one under a beech tree and the other under 

 an oak near by. The lightning falls with fatal effect 

 on the oak ; one person is taken in the twinkling of an 

 eye ; the other is left . 



m 



Not long after the above was written there occurred 

 in South London a thunderstorm of unparalleled 

 severity. It broke over the district with a sudden- 

 ness that was remarkable and caught unawares 

 thousands of people who had left home for what they 

 intended to be a pleasant Sunday morning walk. 

 Several persons (including some children) were struck 

 dead while sheltering under trees on Wandsworth 

 Common. One of the first men to whom I spoke on 

 the following morning said : "I spent a lively hour 

 under a tree in that storm yesterday, but, thank 

 heaven, the tree was a big one, and I was as dry as a 

 bone." On my expressing surprise that he should have 

 escaped unharmed, he replied : " Well, I would much 

 rather have been there than have got wet through." 



On the Sunday before that terrible storm I was 

 sitting indoors reading when there came a startling 

 clap of thunder. The sky was not in the least thundery 

 at the time. As a fact, the sun was shining, and a few 

 snow-white clouds were lazily floating in the northern 

 blue. It was but a single peal. There was no lightning ; 

 nothing more, indeed, and the sun continued to shine 

 until its setting. The experience was uncanny. Next 



