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until they could see the city shimmering far away in the valley. "I
wonder how things are going on there," he said.
And then came a change in the weather. "Come out and see the clouds,"
she cried; and behold! they were a sombre purple in the north and east,
streaming up to ragged edges at the zenith. And as they went up the hill
these hurrying streamers blotted out the sunset. Suddenly the wind set
the beech-trees swaying and whispering, and Elizabeth shivered. And then
far away the lightning flashed, flashed like a sword that is drawn
suddenly, and the distant thunder marched about the sky, and even as
they stood astonished, pattering upon them came the first headlong
raindrops of the storm. In an instant the last streak of sunset was
hidden by a falling curtain of hail, and the lightning flashed again,
and the voice of the thunder roared louder, and all about them the world
scowled dark and strange.
Seizing hands, these children of the city ran down the hill to their
home, in infinite astonishment. And ere they reached it, Elizabeth was
weeping with dismay, and the darkling ground about them was white and
brittle and active with the pelting hail.
Then began a strange and terrible night for them. For the first time in
their civilised lives they were in absolute darkness; they were wet and
cold and shivering, all about them hissed the hail, and through the long
neglected ceilings of the derelict home came noisy spouts of water and
formed pools and rivulets on the creaking floors. As the gusts of the
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