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316 and laughed aloud. Great drops of rain began to fall, zigzag lightnings gleamed through the black clouds, the thunder roared, and the storm burst forth in all its fury. Mr. Proshek hastened into the house. Grandmother had the blessed candle lighted; she was praying with the children, who turned pale every time the lightning struck. Mr. Proshek went from window to window, looking outside. The rain came down in torrents, and the sky was a continuous sheet of lightning; peal after peal of thunder was heard, as if the furies were flying through the air. A moment of silence,—then again the bluish yellow light gleamed in the windows, two fiery snakes crossed each other in the sky, and—crash! crash! came two explosions in quick succession, directly above the house. Grandmother wanted to say: "God be with us!" but the words died upon her lips; Mrs. Proshek took hold of the table, Mr. Proshek turned pale, Vorsa and Betsey fell upon their knees, and the children began to cry. With that last stroke the storm seemed to have spent its wrath, and now began to pass away. The rumbling of the thunder grew lower and lower, the clouds gradually scattered, they changed color, and already the blue sky was seen behind the gray curtain. Lightnings gleamed only now and then, the rain ceased,—the storm was over.

What a change outside! The earth rested as if she were weary; her limbs still trembled, and the sun looked down at her with a tear-stained, but glowing eye, though now and then clouds were seen over his face, the remaining signs of the recent tempest. The grass and the flowers were beaten to the ground; streams of water were flowing along