s getting. Then
there came a flash of lightning--oh, how white and terrible that
lightning was! It came all about us; we seemed wrapped up in it; and
such a burst of thunder as I never heard before or since. It sounded
like a cannon-ball falling right at our feet.

"As soon as we could move we flew into the house. I was wild with fright
as I saw the awful blackness in the sky. Great drops of rain began to
fall, and peal after peal of thunder came, as I snatched my bonnet and
rushed to the door. Mary seized my arm and held me back. She cried, 'You
must not go; indeed you _shall_ not go out in such a storm.'

"Mrs. Hathaway came up to me too, and put her arm around me. 'Why,
Janet, you can not go, my child. It might be at the risk of your life.'

"I think they almost meant to keep me by force, but I screamed out, 'I
_must_ go! I will! I will!' and I broke away from them, and rushed out
into that blinding storm. I couldn't think of anything except the poor
baby I had left all alone. There was no one there to take care of him,
no one knew where he was, and in the noise of the storm nobody could
hear him scream.

"The rain poured down in sheets by the time I reached Mrs. Hathaway's
gate. It seemed almost to beat me down to the ground, and the water was
over my shoes in half a minute. The lightning seemed like one long
flash, and the thunder never stopped. I staggered on and floundered on,
and slipped down and got up again, all the time just saying to myself,
'The baby! the baby!--if I could only reach him and find him alive!'

"Then it seemed as if night came down all at once. It got dark in one
minute, and I heard a horrible roaring sound behind me--louder than all
the thunder. I heard a long, rattling crash, and then another. It was
Mrs. Hathaway's house and barn going to pieces, but I didn't know it
then. I heard people scream; I heard all sorts of things whizzing about
me, but it was too dark to see much. Things came striking against me,
and soon a heavy thing came banging against me on one side, and just as
I was falling down something seemed to pick me up, and I was whirled and
twisted round and round, till I didn't know anything more.

"When I opened my eyes the rain was falling on my face. It was lighter,
and I saw boards and timbers, and trees and branches and bushes, lying
all about me. I was in a field not far from home. I felt dizzy, and
didn't remember anything at first, and then I thought of little Harry,