hheld while the wind-kings rode on earth. On he went in spite of
them. On and on, running blindly when he could run at all. At least, the
wind-kings were company. He had been so long alone. He could remember no
home that had ever been his since he was a little child, neither father
nor mother, no one who belonged to him or to whom he belonged, except
one cousin, an old man who was dead. For a day his dreams had found in a
girl's eyes the precious thing that is called home--oh, the wild fancy!
He laughed aloud.

There was a startling answer; a lance of living fire hurled from
the sky, riving the fields before his eyes, while crash on crash of
artillery numbed his ears. With that his common-sense awoke and he
looked about him. He was almost two miles from town; the nearest house
was the Briscoes' far down the road. He knew the rain would come now.
There was a big oak near him at the roadside. He stepped under its
sheltering branches and leaned against the great trunk, wiping the
perspiration and dust from his face. A moment of stunned quiet had
succeeded the peal of thunder. It was followed by several moments of
incessant lightning that played along the road and danced in the fields.
From that intolerable brightness he turned his head and saw, standing
against the fence, five feet away, a man, leaning over the top rail and
looking at him.

The same flash staggered brilliantly before Helen's eyes as she crouched
against the back steps of the brick house. It scarred a picture like a
marine of big waves: the tossing tops of the orchard trees; for in the
same second the full fury of the storm was loosed, wind and rain and
hail. It drove her against the kitchen door with cruel force; the latch
lifted, the door blew open violently, and she struggled to close it in
vain. The house seemed to rock. A lamp flickered toward her from the
inner doorway and was blown out.

"Helen! Helen!" came Minnie's voice, anxiously. "Is that you? We were
coming to look for you. Did you get wet?"

Mr. Willetts threw his weight against the door and managed to close it.
Then Minnie found her friend's hand and led her through the dark hall to
the parlor where the judge sat, placidly reading by a student-lamp.

Lige chuckled as they left the kitchen. "I guess you didn't try too hard
to shut that door, Harkless," he said, and then, when they came into the
lighted room, "Why, where _is_ Harkless?" he asked. "Didn't he come with
us from the kitche