Then they began about the prophecies, and how in the first century they thought Christ would come the second time before St. John died. Father had been quite a great Bible reader of late years. We spoke of Dan, too, and hoped he would reach his destination safely. Evidently Ben nor mother had any idea he had gone to stay, or that there was anything wrong. I almost persuaded myself I had dreamed that cruel, brutal talk. It had been interspersed with not a little profanity. I hated swearing.
We went to bed at length. I felt so sore and sad then, with all my life in ruins, that I cried softly on my pillow. A deserted wife! And when the story came out, how hard all the gossip would be to hear!
The Yankee clock in the hall rattled off its hours. It always struck as if it might lose a second of time between the strokes. Twelve! The eerie hour. What if a ghost came to me! Oh, what was that!
An awful roar of something coming nearer and nearer and then breaking into a thousand shrieks. I sprang out of bed and screamed.
Father called to me, "Come in here, Ruth," and I ran, frightened almost out of life.
I suppose there had been such tempests before. I know there have been since. Ben came in wrapped in a blanket and lighted some candles, then sat on the foot of father's bed. It was something terrific. The house rocked, we heard the trees crash down, the cries of the animals and the frightened poultry, and that mighty roar and swirl as if the destruction of the world had begun. We were so near the lake that we guessed what an ocean tempest must be with the great waves pounding up, fighting each other like angry armies.
Then it began to rain. A great fierce deluge, this way and that, whirling, beating, changing about, thrashing, as if it meant to crush out life, the world, everything. Oh, what torrents! It stamped on the ground in its rage. It beat on the roof as if it meant to crush it in, and was all the uglier for being foiled.
I snuggled up to father and pressed my cheek against his. His arm was around me. We two, henceforth, always. And what of the other two? I felt the boat must have put in somewhere. It should have been a magnificent night with the moon just past the full. I thought of the ride on Chita in the harvest moonlight. Other tender remembrances came back to me, and from the depths of my soul I cried to God for their safety, cried mightily, as if my own soul was at stake.
It was two before the storm began to abate at all, then it rained steadily, and the wind raged, but not so fiercely, the lake roared like a great booming cannon, but the house had stood the shock and we were safe. It had been so good to have Ben. Yet it was curious we had none of us once spoken Dan's name, though I think it was deep in our hearts.
The skies were still thick in the morning, as if layer after layer had to roll away before it could clear. The wind had mostly ceased, and the rain held up now and then and came in gusts again.