THE WALK. 4]

 

 

 

The lightning strikes a great pine-tree. Children terrified,

 

only a few minutes after Caroline had spoken, an enorm-
ous pine, which grew on the summit of the precipice,
only a very little distance from the place where the chil-
dren had sought refuge, became the mark which the
thunderbolt chose for its aim in coming from the clouds
to the ground. The tree was split through at the trunk,
near the ground, and the top fell over the precipice to the
shore below. It came down very near to the place where
the children were sitting. The crash with which it fell
would have been dreadful, had it not been that the sound
of it was drowned by the loud rattling of the thunder,
which continued to roll and reverberate in every part of
the sky, long after the tree was still.

The children were all very much frightened at this catas-
trophe. Malleville and Phonny screamed aloud with
terror, and were going to jump up and run away from
their shelter, though the rain, which had been descend-
ing in torrents for some time, now poured down faster
than ever.

«Sit still,” said Caroline, “this is the safest place
for us.”

“No,” said Malleville, all excited and trembling, “let
us go away from here. The lightning will strike us if we
stay here.”

* No, it won't,” said Caroline. “Sit still, the lightning
cannot strike through all these rocks.”

«“ Well, then, the trees will fall down upon our heads,”
said Malleville.

“ Not if we stay here,” said Carolme. “ They may if
we go out. It is better to stay here.”

Phonny and Malleville submitted to this decision,
though it was with fear and trembling. Caroline talked