in the afternoon, and he had been walking
beneath a burning sun since early morning, and had had no morsel of food
or drop of water since the evening before.

He fell into a sort of stupor, and while he thus lay dark clouds began
to gather, and mutterings of thunder rolled along the sky. And presently
the sun was obscured and a kind of weird twilight settled down upon the
prairie.

For a time the thunder ceased, the air grew thick and close, and the
silence of death seemed to have fallen upon the world.

Then came a mighty roar, as if the elements were defying each other, and
the rain was dashed upon the earth or swirled through the air with
furious force.

The dashing of the rain upon his face aroused Jimmy, and he rose up,
fighting against the wind, which threatened to take him off his feet,
and, holding out his hands, he gathered enough of the down-pouring flood
to appease his thirst.

Then he staggered on, buffeted by the wind and blinded by the driving
rain, turning this way and that to escape the lashings of the deluge
that swept over him, until his strength gave out, and he dropped to the
ground more dead than alive.

At that instant he felt himself picked up and whirled through the air as
if he had been a feather.

Then he knew no more until, opening his eyes, he found the sun shining
upon his face and the clear, blue sky above him.

But the sun was not more than an hour high, and the thought that he must
pass another night alone upon the prairie was discouraging.

His clothes were wet as they could be, and the cool wind, blowing upon
him, made him tremble and shiver.

He was bruised and sore and weak, but happily his "ride upon the storm"
had not resulted in serious injury. There were no broken bones to
disable him.

The water he had drank had refreshed him greatly, but oh, how hunger
gnawed upon him!

He sat up and looked about him in shivering despair. He found that he
had been lying upon the verge of a fissure in the ground, such as are
often come upon in prairie countries.

It was but a few feet deep and three or four wide at the top. He threw
himself forward, face downward, and looked listlessly into this cleft in
the earth, thinking that perhaps, if he had strength enough left to
gather an armful or two of grass to lie upon, a bed down there,
sheltered as it would be from the wind, would be more comfortable than
where he then was.

But as his dull eyes roved over the bottom of the narr