It was a regular meteorological carnival, and the revelers were drunk
with the wild sport. The apparent nearness of the clouds and the
electric explosions was something remarkable. Every discharge seemed to
be in the branches immediately overhead and made us involuntarily
cower, as if the next moment the great limbs of the trees, or the trees
themselves, would come crashing down. The mountain upon which we were
encamped appeared to be the focus of three distinct but converging
storms. The last two seemed to come into collision immediately over our
camp-fire, and to contend for the right of way, until the heavens were
ready to fall and both antagonists were literally spent. We stood in
groups about the struggling fire, and when the cannonade became too
terrible would withdraw into the cover of the darkness, as if to be a
less conspicuous mark for the bolts; or did we fear that the fire, with
its currents, might attract the lightning? At any rate, some other spot
than the one where we happened to be standing seemed desirable when
those onsets of the contending elements were the most furious.
Something that one could not catch in his hat was liable to drop almost
anywhere any minute. The alarm and consternation of the wives
communicated itself to the husbands, and they looked solemn and
concerned. The air was filled with falling water. The sound upon the
myriad leaves and branches was like the roar of a cataract. We put our
backs up against the great trees, only to catch a brook on our
shoulders or in the backs of our necks. Still the storm waxed. The fire
was beaten down lower and lower. It surrendered one post after another,
like a besieged city, and finally made only a feeble resistance from
beneath a pile of charred logs and branches in the centre. Our garments
yielded to the encroachments of the rain in about the same manner. I
believe my necktie held out the longest, and carried a few dry threads
safely through. Our cunningly devised and bedecked table, which the
housekeepers had so doted on and which was ready spread for breakfast,