464 RECREATION 



and by the time we landed the first rain- buggy with no covering except straw 

 drops began to patter down, while in the hats and thin canvas coats. As we 

 west the lightning played tag across drove into the barnyard, the moon 

 the black threatening clouds. We had peeped out from behind a cloud and 

 a six-mile drive before us and we were gave us the laugh. But we were as 

 hardly started when the deluge com- happy as we were wet and cold for 

 menced. I don't believe it ever rained that moon and those clouds had been 

 so hard before nor since^ but we en- kind to us in the early part of the even- 

 joyed it even if we were in an open ing, when we wanted to fish. 



THE TEMPEST. 



BY CAROLYN B. LYMAN. 



An ominous rumble, distant, far away, 



A clouding of the summer day, 



A rising of the wind, a sudden gust, 



A puff of whirling, yellow dust. 



A flurried rustle 'mong the moving trees, 



The leaves scattering before the breeze, 



The distant low from pastures of the kine, 



The watch dog's restless, anxious whine. 



A reverberating tumult fills the air, 



The frightened birds dart here and there, 



A suffocating silence, long and deep, 



And then, as though to wake from sleep 



The sacred dead and drag them from their graves, 



The storm in all its fury raves. 



The air grows mad, one great black whirl 



Of objects raised, downward to hurl, 



The tall trees twist and snap, each bush and weed 



Alike fall victim to its greed, 



And lightning's flash as streaks of liquid hell, 



To rend the rocks and earth as well; 



Huge chimneys skyward towering, grand and tall, 



Break clattering, and as pebbles fall ; 



While fiendish voices shriek in broken tones, 



Or madly wail in dying groans. 



Foundations tremble with each wrestling blast, 



Gray sheets of rain drive fierce and fast, 



Peal after peal, hell's gates are open wide, 



Its flames leaping on every side. 



In heart of man — in heart of beast, wakes fear, 



But where for weakness, falls a tear ; 



As some huge monster, fraught with fiery might, 



Does battle unto death, in fight, 



The tempest with low growls and mutterings 



Then dies. At dusk the robin sings 



His evening carol to declining day, 



The storm has raged its life away. 



