"Once," said David reverently to himself, beholding it all, "once I
should have seen in this storm some direct intention of the Creator
toward man, even toward me. It would have been a reminder of His
power; perhaps been a chastisement for some good end which I must
believe in, but could not discover. Men certainly once interpreted
storms as communications from the Almighty, as they did pestilence
and famine. There still may be in this neighborhood people who will
derive some such lesson from this. My father may in his heart
believe it a judgment sent on us and on our neighbors for my
impiety. Have not cities been afflicted on account of the presence
of one sinner? Thankful I am not to think in this way now of
physical law--not so to misconceive man's place in Nature. I know
that this sleet, so important to us, is but one small incident in
the long history of the planet's atmosphere and changing surface.
It is the action of natural laws, operating without regard to man,
though man himself may have had a share in producing it. It will
bring death to many a creature; indirectly, it may bring death to
me; but that would be among the results, not in the intention."

He set his face to cross the wood--sliding, skating, steadying
himself against the trunks, driving his heels through the ice crust
The exercise was heating; his breath rose as a steam before his
face. Beyond the woods he crossed a field; then a forest of many
acres and magnificent timber, on the far edge of which, under the
forest trees and fronting a country lane, stood the schoolhouse of
the district. David looked anxiously, as he drew near, for any
signs of injury that the storm might have done. One enormous tree-
top had fallen on the fence. A limb had dropped sheer on the steps.
The entire yard was little better than a brush heap. He soon turned
away home relieved: he would be able to tell Gabriella to-night