the wind-tempest yet lost any of its fury. At this moment Kennedy
discovered, by a succession of those flashes that were lighting the
country around him, a tall young female without cloak or bonnet, her
long hair sometimes streaming in the wind, and sometimes blown up in
confusion over her head. She was proceeding at a tottering but eager
pace, evidently under the influence of wildness and distraction, or
rather as if she felt there was something either mortal or spectral in
pursuit of her. He hailed her by her name as she passed him, for he knew
her, but received no reply. To Tom, who had, as the reader knows, been
a witness of the scene we have described, this fearful glimpse of Nannie
Morrissey's desolation and misery, under the pelting of the pitiless
storm and the angry roar of the I elements, was distressing in the
highest degree, and filled his honest heart with compassion for her
sufferings.

He was now making his way home at his utmost speed, when he heard the
trampling of a horse's feet coming on at a rapid pace behind him, and on
looking back he saw a horseman making his way in the same direction
with himself. As he advanced, the repeated flashes made them distinctly
visible to each other.

"I say," shouted the horseman at the top of his lungs, "can you direct
me to any kind of a habitation, where I may take shelter?"

"Speak louder," shouted Tom; "I can't hear you for the wind."

The other, in a voice still more elevated, repeated the question, "I
want to get under the roof of some human habitation, if there be one
left standing. I feel that I have gone astray, and this is no night to
be out in."