place.

"I'll clear them away," promised Mrs. Schuler. "Hurry," and she fairly
turned them out of the house.

"You made me throw away my shiny things," complained Dicky as they ran
down the lane as fast as they could go.

"Never mind; you'd have jounced them out of your pocket anyway, running
like this," and Dicky, taking giant strides as his sister and his
cousin held a hand on each side, was inclined to think that he would be
lucky if he were not jounced put of his clothes before he got home.

CHAPTER XIV

THE STORM

After all, they need not have jerked poor Dicky over the ground at such
a rapid pace for the storm, though it grumbled and roared at a
distance, did not break until a late hour in the night. Then it came
with a vengeance and made up for its indecision by behaving with real
ferocity.

To the women at Rose House, accustomed to the city, where Nature's
sights and sounds are deadened by the number of the buildings and the
narrowness of the streets, the uproar was terrifying. Flash after
flash lit up their rooms so that the roosters and puppies and pigs and
cows on the curtains stood out clearly in the white light. Crash after
crash sent them cowering under the covers of their beds. The children
woke and added their cries to the tumult.

As the electric storm swept away into the distance the wind rose and
howled about the house. Shutters slammed; chairs were over-turned on
the porch; a brick fell with a thud from the top of the chimney to the
roof; another fell down the chimney into the fireplace where its
arrival was followed by a roar that seemed to shake the old building on
its foundation.

"Grrreat Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Schuler, who had learned some English
expressions from his pupils. He was returning through the hall from a
hobbling excursion to make sure that all the windows down stairs were
closed. The candle dropped from his hand and he was left in the dark.
His crutch slid from under his arm, and he was forced to cling to a
table for support and call for his wife to come and find it for him.

Mrs. Schuler reached him from the kitchen where she had been attending
to the fastenings of the back door. Fortunately her light had survived
the gusty attack and she was able to help her husband to his prop.

"What is it?" she cried breathlessly, "Is the house falling? Did you
ever hear such a noise!"

Mr. Schuler never had. The outcry upstairs was increased by the
shrieks of S