e of his country, then he remembered that she had said she did not
want to hear the word war on that day, it must be a day of all joy, so
he closed his mouth resolutely and merely smiled in answer as she
entered the carriage for the ride home. They spoke of many things; she
was gay with the childish happiness she always felt in the woods or open
country roads. He answered her gaiety, but his heart ached. What did the
future hold for him? Would she, perchance, love another before he could
return--would he return?

"Look," Phoebe said after they had driven several miles, "it is going to
storm--see how dark! We are going to have an April storm."

Even as they looked up black clouds moved swiftly across the sky. They
turned and looked toward the mountains behind them--the summits were
shrouded in dense blackness; the whole countryside was being enveloped
in a gloom like the gloom of late twilight. There was an ominous silence
in the air, living things of the fields and woods scurried to shelter;
only a solitary red-headed woodpecker tapped noisily upon a dead tree
trunk.

Suddenly sharp flashes of lightning darted in zigzag rays through the
gloom.

Phoebe gripped the side of the carriage. "The storm is following us,"
she said. "Look at the hills--they are black as night. Can we get home
before the storm breaks over us?"

"Hardly. It travels faster than we can, and we still have four more
miles to go."

The horse sniffed the air through inflated nostrils and sped unbidden
over the country road. The lightning grew more vivid and blinding and
darted among the hills with greater frequency; loud peals of thunder
echoed and reechoed among the mountains. Then the rain came. In great
splashes, which increased rapidly, it poured its cool torrents upon the
earth.

Phoebe laughed but David shook his head. "We'll have to stop some place
till it's over. You're getting wet. I'll drive in this barnyard."

Amid the deafening crashes of thunder and the steady downpour of rain
they ran through the barnyard and up the path that led to the house. As
they stepped upon the porch a door was opened and a woman appeared.

"Why, come right in!" she greeted them. "This is a bad storm."

"If you don't mind," Phoebe began, but the woman was talkative and broke
in, "Now, I just knowed there'd be company come to-day yet! This after
when I dried the dishes I dropped a knife and fork and that's a sure
sign. Mebbe you don't believe in signs?"