“Go at once, Judith. Hurry, or you may catch cold.”
“And so I will hurry, ma’am. Sure it’s a fray shower bath I’ve had entirely—Glory be to Moses!”
This last exclamation was struck from Judith by a thunderbolt so much more tremendous than anything which had preceded it, that there is no simile to be found for it in heaven or on earth.
“That must have struck very near us,” said Britomarte, as the thunder rolled down the abyss of space and died away.
“Mary, Star iv the Say! * * *S’int Pater, pray for us sinners!” * * * muttered Judith, invoking all the saints she could think of in an emergency.
“I think you are in more danger from damp clothing than from the thunderbolts, Judith. Go and change,” said Miss Conyers.
“If we had only a blessed candle itself, this haythen iv a storm couldn’t hurt us,” whimpered Judith.
“You have your Heavenly Father, who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Appeal to Him. It is an awful storm!” said Miss Conyers, as another blinding flash of lightning pierced every crevice of the closed house, and another peal of thunder rolled and crashed over their heads, and died away in the distance.
Judith told her beads as fast as she could pass them through her fingers. She was shivering alike with terror of the tempest and chilliness from her wet clothes. And Britomarte again urged her to go and change them.
“Sure I daresn’t lave the room. If I’m to be sthruck down dead, I’d like to be wid some one to pick me up and spake a good worrd to me parting sperrit,” moaned the panic-stricken girl.