See those heavy barrels? If this store blows down,
there won't be a shanty standing in the county."
She pushed to the window to get a glimpse of the sod when the lightning
flamed. She imagined the plain as it would look with every cabin
flattened to earth, its inmates scattered, unhoused in the scant,
water-weighted grass.
As they all stood staring out, Rivers pointed and shouted to Bailey,
"See that flag-pole!"
It was made of hard pine, tough and supple, but it bent in the force of
the wind like a willow twig. Again and again it bowed, rose with a
fling, only to be borne down again. At last it broke with a crash; the
upper half, whirling down, struck the roof, opening a ragged hole
through which the rain streamed in torrents.
Rivers cried, in battle alarm, "The roof is going!"
"No, it ain't!" trumpeted Bailey, sturdily; "swing a tub up here to
catch the water!"
The woman forgot her fears and aided the two men as they toiled to cover
the more perishable goods with bolts of cotton cloth, while the
appalling wind tore at the eaves and lashed the roof with broadsides of
rain and hail, which fell in constantly increasing force, raising the
roar of the storm in key, till it crackled viciously.
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