About an hour before sundown, just as Marielle was going to say that it was time to go home, the children were alarmed at hearing a distant rumbling sound.
“What’s that?” said Lucy.
“It is thunder,” said Marielle.
The children looked up, and saw a large black cloud spreading all over the western sky. They had been so much engaged gathering their berries, which caused them to stoop down among the bushes, that they had not observed the cloud before.
“We must go home immediately,” said Marielle, “or we shall be caught in the rain.”
“Yes,” said Royal. “Let us pour our berries into the basket, and go right away.”
Here another distant peal of thunder reverberated through the sky.
Royal hastened to pour the berries from his mug into the basket, and then he helped Rollo and Lucy along with theirs. He took up the basket, which was now pretty heavy, and began to carry it along.
“I’ll take the basket,” he said to Marielle, “if you will help the children.”
So Royal went on as fast as he could, while Marielle followed with the children. They looked round repeatedly at the cloud, and it seemed to be rising fast. The thunder grew louder and more frequent; and once, when Marielle was looking back, she saw a faint glitter in the blackest part of the cloud. It was a flash of lightning.