And rides upon the storm.”
She repeated it to the end, while the rest listened silently.
Suddenly Mrs. Chamberlaine appeared from the kitchen, where she had been to quiet the terror of the servants. “Is Ruth with you?” she asked, anxiously.
“She was with me just before we came in-doors,” Lisa informed her, feeling conscience-stricken at not keeping the child with her. “What was it she was saying? Oh——!”
She was interrupted by a sudden crash, sounding near at hand, and the jar given to the house showed that one of the large locust-trees must have succumbed to the gale and have fallen against the building.
Mr. Danforth ran to the door to see if he could ascertain what had taken place. As he was crossing the hall Lisa’s white figure passed him, and he saw her disappear up the stairway.
“Don’t go up, Miss Holmes,” he cried. “The tree may have broken through the roof, and you do not know what injury you may be courting.” But Lisa, unheeding, fled on, and Mr. Danforth turned to follow.
Up the first flight, on to the second she went, and then she came to the garret. A confused sound filled her ears as she opened the door. “Ruth! Ruth!” she called. A faint sobbing reached her from the corner where the little girl kept her toys. It was pitch dark, except for the sudden flashes of lightning, and in one of these Lisa, anxiously looking before her, saw, sitting beyond a heap of débris, Ruth’s little figure.
“Ruth! Ruth! Are you safe?” she called, eagerly, as she tried to pick her way across the floor.
“Yes, Princess,” Ruth’s plaintive little voice answered, “I’m safe; but Patience is killed and Callie is dreadfully hurt, and I don’t know where Amber is.”