to show it when the storm comes." Then to Harry, "Let your sister alone,
or I'll send you from the room."

The gust, a very severe one, came in the afternoon. Before it was fairly
upon them, Lucy, herself pale with terror, had collected her children in a
darkened room and seated them all on a feather-bed, where they remained
during the storm, half stifled by the heat, the little ones clinging to
their mother, hiding their heads in her lap and crying with fear.

Elsie and her children formed a different group; the mother the central
figure here also, her darlings gathered closely about her, in her
dressing-room--at a safe distance from the open windows--watching with
awed delight, the bursting of the storm clouds over the mountain-tops, the
play of the lightning, the sweep of the rain down from the heights into
the valleys and river below, listening to the crash and roar of the
thunder as it reverberated among the hills, one echo taking it up after
another, and repeating it to the next, till it sounded like the
explosions of many batteries of heavy artillery, now near at hand, now
farther and farther away.

"Mamma, isn't it grand?" exclaimed Eddie, in one of the brief pauses in
the wild uproar of the elements.

"Yes," she said, "the thunder of his power who can understand?"

"Is it God, mamma? does God make it?" asked little Herbert.

"Yes, dear; 'when he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in
the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the
earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of
his treasuries.'"

"We needn't be 'f'aid, mamma?"

"No, darling, no; for God is our Father; He loves us and will take care of
us."

The storm was very violent while it lasted, but soon passed away; the sun
shone out, and a beautiful rainbow spanned the eastern sky above the
mountain-tops.

Elsie's children clapped their hands in ecstasy, and ran to call their
little friends to enjoy the sight with them. Mrs. Ross followed, looking
so pale and exhausted, that Elsie inquired with concern if she were ill.

"Oh, it was the storm!" she said, "wasn't it fearful? I was sure the house
would be struck and some of us killed. Weren't you frightened?"

"No," Elsie said, with a kindly reassuring smile, "I presume my nerves are
stronger than yours, and I am not naturally timid in regard to thunder and
lightning. Besides, I know so well that he who guides and controls it is
my