136 TROTTY’S WEDDING TOUR.

little cold all over. “It is the comet,” said Jill. “It is the
Day of Judgment, Jack.”

Jill said this in a funny way, just an every-day way, as if
we’d been playing in the saloon, and he ’d told me to move
the camera a little. I asked him afterwards why he did n’t
howl. He said he was too scared.

Then it happened. It happened so fast I did n’t even have
time to get my head out from under the clothes.

First there was a creak. Then a crash. Then we felt a
shake, as if a giant pushed his shoulder up through the floor
and shoved us. Then we doubled up. And then we began
to fall. The floor opened, and we went through. I heard
the bedpost hit as we scraped by. Then I knew I was fall-
ing. Then I felt another crash. Then we began to fall again.
Then we bumped down hard. After that we stopped falling.
{ lay still. My heels were doubled up over my head. I
thought my neck would break. But I never dared to stir. I
thought that I was dead.

By and by I wondered if Jill were not dead too. So I un-
doubled my neck a little, and found some air. It seemed to
be just as uncomfortable to double up your neck, and to
breathe without air, when you were dead, as it was when you
were n’t.

So I called out, softly, “ Jill!” No answer. “ Jill!” Not
asound. “O—Jmu!”

But he did not speak. So then I knew Jill must be dead,
at any rate. I could n’t help wondering why he was so much