Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/140



T rained in the night, and blew so fiercely that the windows of the little house rattled and the door shook upon its hinges. When Hugh got up in the morning, all eagerness for the expedition,  there was watery sunlight showing, but great  gusts of wind were still thundering down the valley and the air was raw and chilly. The smiling autumn landscape of scarlet and gold was totally  transformed; the flaming leaves had disappeared  in one stormy night and the brown woods stood  bare and bleak and cold.

“I wish this storm had waited just one day longer,” said Oscar as they were having breakfast before the welcome blaze of the big fire. “There may even be snow now before many hours.”

He did not say, “If only you had remembered 128