pines as the
mower mows the grass with his scythe. Then an awful, sweeping crash
thundered directly at our backs, and turning round, as if to face a foe,
my horse, who had borne the roar and the blinding flash till then
unmoved, paralyzed with dread, and panting for breath, sunk to the
ground; while close at my side the Colonel, standing erect in his
stirrups, his head uncovered to the pouring sky, cried out:

"THANK GOD, WE ARE SAVED!"

There--not three hundred yards in our rear, had passed the
TORNADO--uprooting trees, prostrating dwellings, and sending many a soul
to its last account, but sparing _us_ for another day! For thirty miles
through the forest it had mowed a swath of two hundred feet, and then
moved on to stir the ocean to its briny depths.

With a full heart, I remounted, and turning my horse, pressed on in the
rain. We said not a word till a friendly opening pointed the way to a
planter's dwelling. Then calling to me to follow, the Colonel dashed up
the by-path which led to the mansion, and in five minutes we were
warming our chilled limbs before the cheerful fire that roared and
crackled on its broad hearth-stone.

CHAPTER XII.

THE YANKEE-SCHOOL-MISTRESS.

The house was a large, old-fashioned frame building, square as a
packing-box, and surrounded, as all country dwellings at the South are,
by a broad, open piazza. Our summons was answered by its owner, a
well-to-do, substantial, middle-aged planter, wearing the ordinary
homespun of the district, but evidently of a station in life much above
the common "corn-crackers" I had seen at the country meeting-house. The
Colonel was an acquaintance, and greeting us with great cordiality, our
host led the way directly to the sitting-room. There we found a bright,
blazing fire, and a pair of bright sparkling eyes, the latter belonging
to a blithesome young woman of about twenty, with a cheery face, and a
half-rustic, half-cultivated air, whom our new friend introduced to us
as his wife.

"I regret not having had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. S---- before, but
am very happy to meet her now," said the Colonel, with all the
well-bred, gentlemanly ease that distinguished him.

"The pleasure is mutual, Colonel J----," replied the lady, "but thirty
miles in this wild country, should not have made a neighbor so distant
as you have been."

"Business, madam, is at fault, as your husband knows. I have much to do;
and besides, all my connections are in the