to her
breast so that she might feel the whole perfect little body; the little
lips twisted and Sabrina, thinking it was a smile, smiled back with
infinite tenderness. She forgot the storm raging without, her ears
were deaf to its roar; after a little she leaned her head down until
she could lay her cheek against the baby's soft head.

Within the darkened room a miracle was working!

Suddenly the air was split by a sharp crackle as of a hundred rifles
spitting fire close at hand; and simultaneously came a deafening roar
as though the very Heavens were dropping with a crash. Through it all
pierced Aunt Milly's scream. The walls of Happy House trembled and
swayed; for a moment everything went black before Sabrina's eyes! Then
B'lindy, running through the hall brought her sharply back to her
senses.

"We're struck--we're struck! Sabrin'y! Jonathan!"

Once more Happy House had been struck by lightning! The crashing had
been the tumbling of the bricks of the chimney. And just as in that
other storm, long before, the lightning had worked its vengeance on the
old mantel. It lay in pieces on the floor of the sitting-room, covered
with a litter of broken bric-a-brac and mortar and bricks from the
chimney.

But in the fear of fire no one thought of the mantel. B'lindy ran
wildly around ordering Jonathan to throw buckets of water on any cranny
that might possibly conceal a smouldering flame, at the same time
heaping all kinds of curses down upon the heads of the neighbors who'd
"let Happy House burn right to the ground without liftin' a finger."
And Sabrina, after one look at the lightning's havoc, still with the
baby in her arms, had gone to quiet Miss Milly.

When Jonathan's activity had threatened to destroy everything in the
house with water, B'lindy finally became convinced that there was to be
no fire. "Funniest lightnin' I ever see," she declared, breathlessly
dropping into a chair; "set down that pail, Jonathan--you've most
drowned us all. Thank Heaven, here comes Nancy."

Nancy and Peter, after one glance at the bricks scattered over the
garden, had guessed what had happened.

"Struck,--sure as preachin'! Lucky we ain't burned to a _crisp_. Just
_look_ at the muss!" and B'lindy swept her arm toward the sitting-room
door.

Nancy's face was tragic as she saw the broken mantel and the gaping
fireplace. She clutched Peter's arm. "What a pity--what a _shame_!
It was so very old and--and----" She le