off somehow, before it gets
wet."

The clouds roared and wheeled in the sky. The lightnings were vivid and
frequent. The sultry air grew rapidly cool, and there was a gale rising.
A deep gloom had settled upon all the earth, coloring the scene of
hurried labor with a tinge of awfulness, as if some dread event were
impending.

A few heavy drops came hissing down upon the hay.

"Drive to the stack, James!" cried the farmer. "Go with what you have
got."

"Take the rest of this win'row," said Mark; "hadn't we better? I can
heave it up in a minute."

"Be quick, then; for we must secure the stack."

"If the shower will hold off ten minutes, I do believe the boys will
have the rest of the hay safe in the cock," observed Father Brighthopes.
"How they work!"

The shower did hold off wonderfully. Mark and Mr. Royden threw on the
remainder of the windrow, making a large, unshapely load.

With a feeling of triumph, the farmer saw the horses start at a quick
pace for the stack.

"The rain is coming!" said the jockey, glancing at a dark fringe of
showers dropped from the thunder-clouds over the woods.

"It must come, then!" returned Mr. Royden. "We can pitch enough on the
stack, though, to make it shed rain, I hope. The rest of the load we
will run right into the barn."

The farmer sprang to a stone-heap, where he had left his coat, seized
it, and threw it over the old clergyman's shoulders.

"Walk fast," cried he, "and you will get to the barn before the shower."

"A little rain won't hurt me, if I keep at work," replied Father
Brighthopes. "I'll stay and help the boys."

Mr. Royden remonstrated in vain. A cry from Mark called his attention
from the old man.

"That load will be off!"

The farmer uttered an exclamation of impatience. The great bulk of hay,
thrown on in such haste, and trampled down without much regard to shape
or order by the boys, was reeling over the side of the rick. James,
encumbered with the reins, scrambled to the left as fast as he could, to
keep the balance, calling upon Sam to do the same. But the latter was
too busily engaged in tying a straw around a large horse-fly to heed the
danger.

Mark and Mr. Royden ran to steady the load with their forks; but
suddenly one of the wagon-wheels fell into a little hollow, and they had
scarcely time to escape from the avalanche, as it plunged over them, and
settled like a cloud upon the ground.

About a third of the load remained on the wagon, w