Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/111

 The Doctor's G randdanfrhter.

��95

��head, when she noticed a dark cloud rising in the south. Soon after a breeze freshened up, and she thought there was going to be a shower. Bluff got up and walked around uneasily, and seemed anxious. Peter went about shut- ting up the stable windows and doors. He said, "Thar's gwine to be a big shower, or a sou'-east storm ; 'twont last long, but 'twill be tough." Mollie shut every window in the house, and waited in terror by the kitchen hearth for the " thunder."

When Susanna retired, she opened her Bible in an absent way, thinking of the shower meanwhile. When she looked, the book lay open in Ecclesias- tes, and she read the twelfth chapter. Many times had she read the beautiful words, " Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern ; " but to-night they gave her a restless feeling, their beauty had fled, and they seemed a portent of ill. She thought, " It is the weather, something in the air, that gives me this feeling. I will go to sleep, and perhaps I shall know nothing of the shower." Just then Bluff gave out the most pitiful howl, something he seldom did ; and it sounded uncanny in the thickening gloom. Poor Mollie believed that she or Peter were to be struck by thunder sure : " a dog's howl- ing meant death alius."

Slowly the rain-ladened clouds rolled on, and midnight had come before the fury of the storm burst over Dr. Car- win's home. Susanna had succeeded in getting to sleep ; and the thunder had muttered, and the lightning had darted out its forked tongue like a venomous serpent, and finally rent the sagging clouds, and the rain rushed before the fierce south-east wind. The wiry

��branches of the elms before the house rattled and scraped against the win- dows, as if trying to get in ; the hang- bird's nest was beaten and tossed by the swinging branches. The wind boomed in the great chimney in Susan- na's room, and it sounded like artillery. The thunder crashed close to them, and shook the oaken frame of their dwell-

��ing.

��Susanna pulled aside the curtains of her bedstead, and saw the room filled with a garish light, and the shadow of the writhing elm branches looked like a strange writing on the wall ; following this another peal of thunder, and crash after crash followed. During a momen- tary silence, the tall clock in the hall struck one, that lonesome hour. Al- though the elements were at war, and over her head the battle-ground, Su- sanna felt the sound to be prophetic. Was she one alone ?

After a few hours of fury the tempest was over, and morning dawned on many a shattered tree and rain-washed road ; the tender grass had been laid low, and the tiny birds were drowned in their nests.

One morning in July, Susanna saw Joseph Heard coming down the road in a hurried way. He walked into their yard, and went to the stable ; when he passed the house, he gave a guilty look at the windows, as if he feared he might be detected in some crime.

Susanna heard him say " Good-morn- ing " to Peter, who was currying Sorrel. All the time Joseph was looking beyond Peter in search of some one else. "Has the doctor gone out yet?" he_ asked, " No sar, he's in the office. Shall I speak to him?" — "No," said Joseph, " I will go in and find him." — "Is yer father wus?" asked Peter

�� �