own power smote the lad to the earth, which had become a
raging sea. It rocked--it rolled. Terrified, the child no longer
attempted to stand. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled.

[Illustration: "BIRDS SEEMED TO SING THROUGH THE AIR."]

The trees whistled overhead. Flocks of birds seemed to sing through the
air, striking against the telegraph wires. The atmosphere, which but a
few moments ago reeked with heat, took on a grave-like chill. Again the
earth heaved and swayed beneath the frightened youngster, who fell upon
his face, vainly clawing the ground for the support which it denied him.

The station was only twenty yards away. There, all the people were in a
turmoil. While endeavoring to regain their feet, some were violently
thrown upon the wooden platform. Others, holding to the side of the
building, felt with stupefaction the boards totter beneath their touch.
Was judgment at hand? Had the end of the world come? The terror of a
nameless danger unmanned the stoutest heart. Women shrieked and prayed.
Men cursed and groaned.

[Illustration: "HAD THE END OF THE WORLD COME?"]

Donny had now joined the stricken group. They huddled together until
another shock threw them one upon another. Delicate women became
nauseated as if in mid-ocean. Sturdy men who had faced bullets in the
Civil War without wincing, lost self-control. They surged; they fought;
they comforted each other; they cried aloud.

At this moment a frightful tremor shook the earth. The station building
gave sickening creaks; then it toppled with a crash.

Yell now followed yell. The crowd, that but now waited the joyous
greetings of friends, was battered by the bruises of the earth and
hurried by fright into a contagious state of mania. The bodies and faces
of the people changed almost beyond recognition. Maddened with fear,
stunned by the last concussion, they stampeded.

The cry rang from mouth to mouth: "To the woods! To the hill! Home!
Home!! Home!!!" They swayed; they rushed; they parted; they ran. Struck
as by an invisible enemy, they fell prostrate in the powdery dust. They
picked themselves up again and panted in their flight. A voice close to
Donny's side rang above the uproar: "Good Lord! _It is an earthquake!_"

Like birds before a tornado, the people scattered to the right, to the
left,--this way, that, and were gone. Donny found himself, dazed and
alone, upon the cross-ties, groping toward the oncoming train. He thrust
out hi