ds. The metal rod terminated at the top tripodwise, in
three keen tines, brightly gilt. He held the thing by the wooden part
alone.

"Sir," said I, bowing politely, "have I the honor of a visit from that
illustrious god, Jupiter Tonans? So stood he in the Greek statue of old,
grasping the lightning-bolt. If you be he, or his viceroy, I have to
thank you for this noble storm you have brewed among our mountains.
Listen: That was a glorious peal. Ah, to a lover of the majestic, it is
a good thing to have the Thunderer himself in one's cottage. The thunder
grows finer for that. But pray be seated. This old rush-bottomed
arm-chair, I grant, is a poor substitute for your evergreen throne on
Olympus; but, condescend to be seated."

While I thus pleasantly spoke, the stranger eyed me, half in wonder, and
half in a strange sort of horror; but did not move a foot.

"Do, sir, be seated; you need to be dried ere going forth again."

I planted the chair invitingly on the broad hearth, where a little fire
had been kindled that afternoon to dissipate the dampness, not the cold;
for it was early in the month of September.

But without heeding my solicitation, and still standing in the middle of
the floor, the stranger gazed at me portentously and spoke.

"Sir," said he, "excuse me; but instead of my accepting your invitation
to be seated on the hearth there, I solemnly warn _you_, that you had
best accept _mine_, and stand with me in the middle of the room. Good
heavens!" he cried, starting--"there is another of those awful crashes.
I warn you, sir, quit the hearth."

"Mr. Jupiter Tonans," said I, quietly rolling my body on the stone, "I
stand very well here."

"Are you so horridly ignorant, then," he cried, "as not to know, that by
far the most dangerous part of a house, during such a terrific tempest
as this, is the fire-place?"

"Nay, I did not know that," involuntarily stepping upon the first board
next to the stone.

The stranger now assumed such an unpleasant air of successful
admonition, that--quite involuntarily again--I stepped back upon the
hearth, and threw myself into the erectest, proudest posture I could
command. But I said nothing.

"For Heaven's sake," he cried, with a strange mixture of alarm and
intimidation--"for Heaven's sake, get off the hearth! Know you not, that
the heated air and soot are conductors;--to say nothing of those
immense iron fire-dogs? Quit the spot--I conjure--I command you."

"Mr. J