Oh, the destruction that greeted us! The lake had been loosed it seemed and swept over everything. Streets were rivers, some houses had been carried off their foundations. We were on higher ground, but there was only a short distance between us and this great sea the wind had stirred up.
About ten the clouds began to lift a little and patches of blue struggled here and there and were submerged again. Poor Jolette had gone almost crazy and really had not wit enough left to get breakfast. Ben and I helped, but all the life had been wrenched out of me. One of the outbuildings had gone over, but the barn and stable and hennery were intact.
By noon Norman came over, waded over, for he was mud up to his knees. The instant I looked into his kindly, pitying eyes I felt he shared my secret. I did not dare give him a second glance, for I knew I should cry out in anguish.
After an hour or two the sun came out, as if quite ashamed of the destruction the wretched myrmidons of storm had wrought. And we heard how wharves and storehouses had been submerged, vessels torn away and wrecked, swept down to the end of the lake, and such destruction as had never come upon us before, as there had not been so much to destroy.
It was several days before the damage could really be estimated. The waters subsided, the lake took her mud and ooze and overflow. The sun shone as if it was glad to help dry up and restore, and the blue skies smiled, the winds seemed as if led by a child.
Some of the corn had been cut and stacked, and the rest, though beaten down, was so fully ripened there would not be a great loss. Most of the grains had been cut and housed.
"I declare, Gaynor, you do have the best luck of any one I know," said a neighbor.
It seemed so. Father was really a rich man, but most of it had come through thrift.
I felt weak and miserable. I was holding my breath for some blow that would surely strike, and when I looked in any one's face I felt as if I must scream.
Norman came up on the porch one afternoon. I was walking slowly downstairs, and halted in the hall. I did not hear what father asked, but Norman answered: