gs?"

"The wind is, perhaps, the most terrible of all."

"How loud it is now!" said Adam, shivering as the rushing storm drowned
his voice. When the gust had passed, the widow said, "It was not the
wind that made all that noise, it was a dash of hail. Ah! if I do fear
anything, it is large hail; not because it will hurt me, but because it
may break my window, and let in the wind to blow out my lamp."

"But why do not things hurt you? If the lightning was to kill you--"

"That would not hurt me," said the widow, smiling. "I do not call that
being hurt, more than dying in any other way that God pleases."

"But if it did not kill you quite, but hurt you--hurt you very much
indeed--burned you, or made you blind?"

"Then I should know that it was no hurt, but in some way a blessing,
because the lightning comes from God. I always like to see it,
because--There!" she said, as a vivid flash illumined the place. "Did
you ever see anything so bright as that? How should we ever fancy the
brightness of God's throne, if He did not send us a single ray, now and
then, in this manner--one single ray, which is as much as we can bear?
I dare say you have heard it read in church how all things are God's
messengers, without any word being said about their hurting us,--`fire
and hail;' here they are!"

When that gust was past, she went on, "`Snow and vapour, stormy winds
fulfilling His word.' Here we are in the midst of the fire and the hail
and the stormy winds. If we looked out, perhaps we might see the `snow
and vapour.'"

The children did not seem to wish it.

"Then again," the widow went on, "we are told that `He causeth His wind
to blow, and the waters flow.' I am sure I can show you that. I am
sure the sea must have risen much already, before such a wind as this.
Come!" she continued, wrapping her plaid round herself and the children;
"keep close to me and you will not be cold. The cold has not come yet:
and if we stand under the sheltered side of the house we shall not be
blown. Hark! there is the roar of the waves when the thunder stops.
Now we shall see how `He causeth His wind to blow and the waters flow.'"

She looked so cheerful and promised them such a sight, that they did not
like to beg to stay within. Though the hail came pelting in gusts,
there was no rain at present to wet them. The wind almost strangled
them at the first moment; but they were under the eastern gable of the
cottage in an instant,