rds, folks in the neighborhood spoke of happenings as being just
before, or just after, the "Big Storm."

The lightning flashed so continuously that the heavens were like one
steady glare of white light; the thunder boomed and crashed in a
hideous din without any cessation. The rain beat against her as sharp
as needle points, and the wind seemed as if it were trying to lift her
off the ground to fling her back again to crush, so hard it blew.
Several trees within her observation went down, some torn up by the
roots; Arethusa could have wept miserably to see them go, these
woodland friends of hers. "Jane Eyre" was blown from her unheeding
grasp and against a crooked root of the oak tree. Its water-soaked
pages flapped madly back and forth; the equally water-soaked rug had
been flung against a near-by bush, wide spread like a sail.

Then suddenly, with a rush and a roar as if the world itself were being
torn from its moorings, the Hollow Tree, the very dearest of all the
growth in Miss Asenath's Woods, went crashing to the ground. It fell
through the tree against which Arethusa crouched, carrying branches of
the latter along with it. It was a pure miracle that she was not hit by
some of these flying branches, or by the Hollow Tree itself, in its
fall; for it was all around her, hemming her into a prison of
instantaneous building so that she could not move. Undoubtedly, had she
stayed under the Hollow Tree after the Storm began, she would have been
killed.

But with this last desecration the Storm seemed satisfied; its fury
abated. And ere long leaves slowly dripping and birds chirping were the
only sounds.

Arethusa shivered. Her teeth were chattering, partly through fear and
partly because she was really very cold. The Storm had seemed to wring
every single bit of warmth out of the air, and she had been wet to the
skin with that stinging, chilly rain. Her tears fell fast as she
reached to touch the Hollow Tree, all about her. Would that the wind
had blown down every single tree in the woodland if it had only left
her this one!

She tried to climb out. But every attempt she made was unsuccessful.
She was pinned in against the oak tree by interlocked branches which
her strength seemed unavailing to so much as disturb. It seemed that
all she could do would be to lie helplessly back and wait for somebody
to come and find her before she could get out.

But would she have to stay in this place all night before anyone di