de greater strides.

At this moment came a crash, louder and heavier. The storm was just over
her now and the ground around her was cleaved with blue flames. It was
better to stop running now; far better be drenched than struck down by
lightning.

Soon a few drops of rain fell. Fortunately she was nearing the wood, and
now she could distinguish clearly the great trees. A little more
courage. Many times her father had told her that if one kept one's
courage in times of danger one stood a better chance of being saved. She
kept on.

When at last she entered the forest it was all so black and dark she
could scarcely make out anything. Then suddenly a flash of lightning
dazzled her, and in the vivid glare she thought she saw a little cabin
not far away to which led a bad road hollowed with deep ruts. Again the
lightning flashed across the darkness, and she saw that she had not made
a mistake. About fifty steps farther on there was a little hut made of
faggots, that the woodcutters had built.

She made a final dash; then, at the end of her strength, worn out and
breathless, she sank down on the underbrush that covered the floor.

She had not regained her breath when a terrible noise filled the forest.
The crash, mingled with the splintering of wood, was so terrific that
she thought her end had come. The trees bent their trunks, twisting and
writhing, and the dead branches fell everywhere with a dull, crackling
sound.

Could her hut withstand this fury? She crawled to the opening. She had
no time to think--a blue flame, followed by a frightful crash, threw her
over, blinded and dazed. When she came to herself, astonished to find
that she was still alive, she looked out and saw that a giant oak that
stood near the hut had been struck by lightning. In falling its length
the trunk had been stripped of its bark from top to bottom, and two of
the biggest branches were twisted round its roots.

She crept back, trembling, terrified at the thought that Death had been
so near her, so near that its terrible breath had laid her low. As she
stood there, pale and shaking, she heard an extraordinary rolling sound,
more powerful than that of an express train. It was the rain and the
hail which was beating down on the forest. The cabin cracked from top to
bottom; the roof bent under the fury of the tempest, but it did not fall
in. No house, however solid, could be to her what this little hut was at
this moment, and she was mistress of