down in the hollow of the tree to keep it dry, and then,
flattened herself against the trunk to watch, as much protected as she
could be, and with the intensest admiration, this masterpiece of the
Storm King. She was not in the least bit frightened of the vivid
lightning that played almost incessantly about her, or of the rolling
and crashing thunder. She lifted up her face to feel the rain upon it,
and smiled in sheer joy of the wonderful beauty of the graceful long
sweep of that failing rain.

But with a crack of thunder which Miss Letitia would have said was
"near," most certainly, for it sounded as though the heavens themselves
were fallen, Arethusa's eyes closed involuntarily.

CHAPTER IV

Timothy Jarvis was making preparations to salt the cattle down in the
"V" lot on his place (so-called because a wedge of the Redfield
property carved out a bit of its very centre) when those angry black
clouds began piling up.

He was not very weather wise as yet, this sturdy boy farmer, Timothy,
and so his study of the brooding sky did not help him as much, in his
prognostication of what it would bring forth, as it might have helped
older folk more acquainted with the vagaries of weather. Mandy or Miss
Eliza or Blish could have told him that black clouds in the north west
always meant a bad storm, and one that came quickly. But Timothy
thought of his sleek red cattle, of which he was so proud, which were
needing salt so dreadfully, and he decided that he had plenty of time
in which to go on ahead and finish his job before the storm should
really break. He hated to leave them until every last one had had a
chance at the coarse salt he spread out for them on the rocks by the
Branch. And the clouds would probably go on piling up that way for some
hours.

So sure was he that this prediction was correct that he sent the man
who was helping him back to the barn with the mule and spring-wagon,
and planned to walk himself. He wanted a look at the bunch in the
wood-lot, and now, while he was so near it, was as good a time as he
could find in which to visit that other herd.

But the first falling drops caught him before he was half way to the
wood-lot, so he turned around without attempting that visit and started
for home. Then that great downpour which had trapped Arethusa under the
hollow tree caught him just as he was passing Miss Asenath's Woods, and
he decided to go on up to the Redfield house, as it was so much neare