The Carter Girls' Week-End Camp

y free from severe storms that season and the Carters had had no difficulty up to that time in keeping dry. They had had rain in plenty b

ling over the mountain was as much an astonishment to the dancers in the pavilion as it was to the moon herself. They refused to recognize the fact that a storm was coming up and the moon also held her own for some time after the downpour was upon them. She kept pe

e colors as clearly defined as a solar bow but infini

ime that nothing short of horizontal rain could find its way under that roof. Well, this rain was horizontal and it came in first one direction and then another until every bit of floor space was flooded. The thunder sounded like stage thunder made by rolling barrels of bricks

Bill. "I want to dance with you once be

nd to stop it. Then he made a dash for the kitchen just as a river of water was descending and in a twinkling was back bearing in his arms a great tin tub. This he placed over the top of the

r the four winds of heaven to blow through. Sad havoc they played with the dainty finery that Mrs. Carter and Susan had left spread out on the bed. The wonderful hat, brought as a present f

e he threw himself on his cot to fight it out with his disappointed self. A dash of rain on his tent ar

othes belonging to himself and his tent mates, and then rushing to the neighboring tents that were still

is way to the pavilion. Trees were bending before the

uilded better than they knew." It did hold although the roof was straining at the rafters a

wn. The wind was still driving the rain in horizontal sheets and the pavilion was getting damper and damper. The week-enders were a very forlorn looking crowd and no doubt

ming it on us!" crie

ide and whispered to him: "See here, Zebedee, don't you think it is up to us somehow to relieve this situation? If we get giddy and act as though it were a privilege to be wet to the skin, don't you think we

and Page Allison, their best friend, was also privilege

thing, but the lightning is so seve

e Almighty is a-doing his wuck ain't the tim

t now, that is, the lightning is, b

afraid of storms as a rule-clung to Mr. Tucker. Everybody was clinging to everybody else and in the stress of the moment no one was choosy about the person to cling to. Bill cursed his star

e to us!" excl

hit me!" scr

r?" cried Douglas. "They

the table and Susan was trying to get in the fireless cooker, head first," volu

. "Turn it on full force and it would still b

h an inspiration that all regretted had not come

nter of the pavilion as a support to the roof. The branches had been sawed off, leaving enough projecting to serve as hat

on the rafters where they defied the rain to reach them. Even poor Mrs. Carter, her pretty lace dress, if not absolutely rui

age!" shouted

ge had an idea that she mean

ing ending to a day of worry

merciful

st and foll

weather when the weather happens to be bad and city folk are visiting them. Douglas thought she had en

country all my life and whenever we have a big storm at Bracken or unseasonable weather of any sort, we are always held personally

w did yo

ntil all of these week-enders will think that the storm was about the most interesting thing that

?" and Douglas smiled

ncil and appoint a comm

nsley and Lewis Somerville. Nan was so busy looking at the beauties

. Tucker. "Your wise little he

he lightning strikes on the edge of it

near being that same th

rew farther and farther apart. The rain gave one big last dash and stoppe

make and every suggestion was eagerly taken by the committee on wa

e camp and those that were damp were draped along the rafters by the climbers. Soon the brazier had a glow of coals that sent up heat to the rafters, and Bill also put into use the great iron pot that had hung over the camp fire just for picturesqueness. It had never had anything in it but water, all the cooking being done on kerosene stoves and

step lively, which did much toward starting their circulation and warming them up generally.

cult to realize that not ten minutes before the biggest storm Greendale had ever known had been making even the strong men tremble.

gum tree on the lawn at Bracken had been struck before her very ey

d soul was exposed to my Maker," she said, as she gave her beloved father a hug. "I have got all kinds of

dledums! Wha

re other things but I can't think of them just now. Suppose-only suppose that I had winked out without telling you or worse than that, suppose you had--" but Dum couldn't fini

hese Carter girls and Page jolly up this crowd. Page is making coffee and I am goin

over in abject woe. Oscar was praying while Susan moaned and groaned wi

et me be putrified by fire and let the rollin' thunder's shock pass me by, leavin' me stand steadfast, a pillar of smoke by day and a

shall lie down together like the lion an' the lamb in that great

smite the Shibboleth and the Urum an' Thurum may

! an' thy handy

ppeal by asking for the coffee pot, while Bill T

ge, with difficulty restraining her s

eat agin? Lord love us if ev'thing don't make these here week-enders em

omething hot to drink, and then, too, we want them to forget the terrible storm a

ride all the way from Richmond jes' to fill theyselves up, if f

m in any way, the grumblers had not hesitated to criticize the whole thing in Dee's presence when they got wet and scared. Dee had done all in her power to soften their judgment, but there were s

soft soap the men who are grouching, and then get Zebedee to go afte