smoke, flew across the dead leaden tint; a cooler, damper air blew
over the meadows, and a few large heavy drops splashed in the water.
'We shall have a storm. Lizzy! May! where are ye? Quick, quick,
my Lizzy! run, run! faster, faster!'

And off we ran; Lizzy not at all displeased at the thoughts of a
wetting, to which indeed she is almost as familiar as a duck; May,
on the other hand, peering up at the weather, and shaking her pretty
ears with manifest dismay. Of all animals, next to a cat, a
greyhound dreads rain. She might have escaped it; her light feet
would have borne her home long before the shower; but May is too
faithful for that, too true a comrade, understands too well the laws
of good-fellowship; so she waited for us. She did, to be sure,
gallop on before, and then stop and look back, and beckon, as it
were, with some scorn in her black eyes at the slowness of our
progress. We in the meanwhile got on as fast as we could,
encouraging and reproaching each other. 'Faster, my Lizzy! Oh,
what a bad runner!'--'Faster, faster! Oh, what a bad runner!'
echoed my saucebox. 'You are so fat, Lizzy, you make no way!'--'Ah!
who else is fat?' retorted the darling. Certainly her mother is
right; I do spoil that child.

By this time we were thoroughly soaked, all three. It was a pelting
shower, that drove through our thin summer clothing and poor May's
short glossy coat in a moment. And then, when we were wet to the
skin, the sun came out, actually the sun, as if to laugh at our
plight; and then, more provoking still, when the sun was shining,
and the shower over, came a maid and a boy to look after us, loaded
with cloaks and umbrellas enough to fence us against a whole day's
rain. Never mind! on we go, faster and faster; Lizzy obliged to be