A CLOUD OF THUNDER 205 



for the sudden freshness as of a spell broken. The little 

 noises, the little movements in place of the unearthly 

 rumblings and deathlike suspensions of movement, are 

 desired to restore the oppressed senses and remove the 

 incubus of a supernal threat. When it comes the storm is 

 pure pleasure. The mind and body are relieved together. 

 The splintered streaks of electric fire, the crash of near 

 thunder, the huge raindrops leaping like a shoal of rising 

 fish on lawn and roof, the sharp variation of wind and 

 noise and light are as themes for prattling wonder. 



This sense of oppression on the edge of a thunderstorm 

 is not a fancied invention of the mind of a neurotic or 

 even a superstitious race. Some such feeling is expressed 

 quite definitely in other lesser creatures. If there is a 

 robustious creature, it is the &quot; irreverent buccaneering &quot; 

 bumble bee. Why, then, did a previously lively bee, a 

 Bombus agrorum^ which is one of the most active, crawl in 

 at my window as the oppression grew, and hang like a 

 dead thing on the curtain till the first drops fell ? How 

 big they were ! It was a prodigy that no more followed. 

 Those immense and splendid clouds that earlier had piled 

 themselves up gigantically, may prove a defence against 

 rain as well as a cause of it. The upward currents of 

 warm air meet descending drops, and of these sometimes 

 only the biggest and heaviest can penetrate the defensive 

 cloud. 



No one has ever explained some of the earth-born 

 accompaniments of these hot and heavy storms of sum 

 mer. The bumble bee was not the chief visitor to the 

 open window. The panes grew populous with the little 

 flies that the country people in all parts call &quot; thunder- 

 flies.&quot; They are so many, they appear so suddenly and 

 so suddenly disappear, that you might believe them to 

 be the product of a more cosmic agency than mere 



