lightning gleam. Another scream thrilled on the air, and then Mrs.
Howland sunk swooning to the floor.

Mr. Howland was just stepping into the yard, when his son fell,
crushed by the terrific fall, at his feet.

"Oh, father!" came in a voice of anguish from the yet conscious boy,
as he lifted one hand with a feeble effort toward his parent. Then a
deathly whiteness came ever his face, and he fainted instantly.

On the arrival of a physician it was found that Andrew's left arm
was broken in two places, his left ancle dislocated, and two ribs
fractured. As to the internal injury sustained, no estimate could be
made at the time. He did not recover fully from the state of
insensibility into which he lapsed after the fall, until the work of
setting the broken bones and reducing the dislocation was nearly
over. His first utterance was to ask for his mother. She was not
present, however. Her cries, at seeing the peril and fall of her
child, brought a domestic to the room, who found her lying
insensible upon the floor. Assistance being called, she was removed
to her own chamber, where she remained, apparently lifeless for the
space of half an hour. When she recovered, her husband was pacing
the chamber floor with slow, measured steps, and his eyes cast down.

"Andrew! Is he dead?" were her first words. She spoke in a low
voice, and with forced composure.

Mr. Howland paused, and approached the bed on which lay his pale
exhausted wife, just awakened from her death-like unconsciousness.