en in so many frightful storms that came from
innocent-looking clouds, that now I am suspicious of anything of the
kind that looks at all threatening. Consequently, I was about the first
person to notice the peculiar unbroken gray that had replaced the black
of a few minutes before, and the first, too, to hear the ominous roar
that sounded like the fall of an immense body of water, and which could
be distinctly heard fifteen minutes before the storm reached us.

While I stood at the door listening and watching, I saw several people
walking about in the garrison, each one intent upon his own business and
not giving the storm a thought. Still, it seemed to me that it would be
just as well to have the house closed tight, and calling Hulda we soon
had windows and doors closed--not one minute too soon, either, for the
storm came across the mountains with hurricane speed and struck us with
such force that the thick-walled log houses fairly trembled. With the
wind came the hail at the very beginning, changing the hot, sultry air
into the coldness of icebergs. Most of the hailstones were the size of
a hen's egg, and crashed through windows and pounded against the house,
making a noise that was not only deafening but paralyzing. The sounds of
breaking glass came from every direction and Hulda and I rushed from
one room to the other, not knowing what to do, for it was the same scene
everyplace--floors covered with broken glass and hail pouring in through
the openings.

The ground upon which the officers' quarters are built is a little
sloping, therefore it had to be cut away, back of the kitchen, to make
the floor level for a large shed where ice chest and such things are
kept, and there are two or three steps at the door leading from the shed
up to the ground outside. This gradual rise continues far back to the
mountains, so by the time the hail and water reached us from above they
had become one broad, sweeping torrent, ever increasing in volume. In
one of the boards of our shed close to the steps, and just above the
ground, there happened to be a large "knot" which the pressure of the
water soon forced out, and the water and hailstones shot through and
straight across the shed as if from a fire hose, striking the wall of
the main building! The sight was most laughable--that is, at first it
was; but we soon saw that the awful rush of water that was coming in
through the broken sash and the remarkable hose arrangement back of th