256 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
she sobbed — it seemed we were, but you put on as 
hopeful a front as possible to help her. And then — 
the whole earth seemed shattered to pieces, the 
woman and her horse fell as though shot, and lights 
played about them on the rock. 
Heaven knows how long it lasted. It seemed 
hours. It vanished almost as suddenly as it came, 
and when the sun burst out we discovered we were 
yet alive, drenched to the skin, and our teeth chat- 
tering with cold and fright. The woman and her 
horse had struggled to their feet, she with legs so 
numb that she could scarcely stand and the horse 
quivering in every muscle. We managed to attach 
the:trembling animals to the carriage, which, though 
repeatedly struck, had not been destroyed, and get 
back to Highlands. It was weeks before one fully 
recovered from the effects of the adventure, and one 
wonders if the poor woman and the horse she held 
ever fully recovered. 
It was the worst electrical storm known for years, 
and why we chose that particular day to go to White- 
side with its Devil's Court-House who can say? 
For from the bench of Whiteside the native people, 
those who live in that region, flee in terror at the 
slightest sign of an approaching storm. It is a noted 
battle-ground. To stand in the midst of a conflict of 
the gods where lightning bolts are the weapons is an 
experience one would not dare to court, but having 
survived It, it becomes one of those great headlands 
in life the existence of which Is worth whatever may 
have been the cost of discovering them. 
