strained at its guy-ropes, the poles creaked and cracked, and in less
time than it takes to tell it, the whole flapping structure had gone down
with one ballooning heave, flat upon the ground, covering its inmates
with billowing canvas.

Then came a terrific clap of thunder and a flash of the fiercest
lightning Sally had ever seen. Instantly there was a sudden and
overwhelming downpour of rain, as if the heavens had opened. Then
everybody was shouting or calling. Outside the tent, Jarvis, in his
hammock, and Bob, on his blankets on the ground, had been soaked to the
skin before they knew what had happened, and were trying to discover a
place where they could crawl under the wrecked canvas and find a shelter
from the deluge.

"Where are you all? Anybody hurt?" cried Jarvis, groping in the
blackness.

"All right!" screamed Josephine, who had put her hand under the canvas
partition and found her mother, whose bed was next her own.

"All right!" shrieked Sally, who had received a soaking by having been
close to the open tent-flap when the flood came. But she did not mention
that just now.

"Here's a place to get under!" cried Bob to Jarvis, and the two managed
to work themselves under cover. A convenient table made a nook to receive
them, and kept the tent off their heads.

"I've crawled under my cot!" announced Alec, at the top of his lungs.