88 
INTREPID COURAGE. 
Mrs. Maxwell dismounted, and placed the 
child in her saddle, resolved to walk the remain- 
ing distance and lead the unridden horses. Put- 
ting herself between them, she slowly and cau- 
tiously felt her way down the steep and winding 
road over which the water was rushing in a flood. 
She often found herself slipping and falling under 
their feet ; and in her continual fear of going over 
the lower bank, was coming in collision with the 
upper one. But bracing herself against the storm 
and all manifestation of weakness and fear that 
should further alarm her child, she resolutely 
kept on her way, although it seemed at times as 
though both strength and courage were almost 
gone. Nor need it seem strange; aside from the 
discomfort of being drenched by icy rain, there 
are few things in nature that inspire the human 
soul with a more perfect sense of awe, not un- 
mixed with fear, than a thunder-storm in the 
mountains at night. The darkness, the wild rush 
of winds among the pines and down the gorges, 
the heavy beating of the rain, the awful picture 
of abysmal depths and frowning heights which 
the lightning reveals, the heavy thunder meeting 
peal on peal, the echo and re-echo, forming for 
many minutes one continuous roar, ceasing only 
to bring out in stronger relief the beginning of 
another cannonade so deafening, it seems, as 
though the solid heavens had fallen in awful 
