that came whirling up from the horizon in dark and broken masses,
and throwing a deep shadow over the landscape just before bathed in
light. Calmly had I surveyed the peaceful scene spread out before
me. I was charmed with its quiet beauty. But now, stronger emotions
stirred within me.

"Oh, this is sublime!" I murmured, as I gazed upon the cloudy hosts
moving across the heavens in battle array.

A gleam of lightning sprang forth from a dark cavern in the sky, and
then, far off, rattled and jarred the echoing thunder. Next came the
rushing and roaring wind, bending the giant-limbed oaks as if they
were but wands of willow, and tearing up lesser trees as a child
tears up from its roots a weed or flower.

In this war of elements I stood, with my head bared, and clinging to
a rock, mad with a strange and wild delight.

"Brilliant! Sublime! Grand beyond the power of descriptions" I said,
as the storm deepened in intensity.

"An hour like this is worth all the commonplace, dull events of a
lifetime."

There came a stunning crash in the midst of a dazzling glare. For
some moments I was blinded. When sight was restored, I saw, below
me, the flames curling upward from a dwelling upon which the fierce
lightning had fallen.

"What majesty! what awful sublimity!" said I, aloud. I thought not