"No—the last rails!" sputtered Julie, trying to laugh.
"Girls—hold your faces up to the rain and it will wash the mud from your eyes!" yelled Judith, who waited on the running board for further developments.
She had hardly spoken when a swift shaft of blinding light and a deafening crack of thunder sent a panic into every one. They were stunned for a moment, and then such a howl as went up from nine lusty throats!
"We're struck!" yelled some.
"Oh, we're killed!" added others, but it took only a second after they had caught their breaths to pile, willy-nilly, into the cars, where they huddled until the fright had subsided.
Shortly after the lightning had struck a large tree further up the road, the rain suddenly stopped and the sun shone out as hot and bright as ever.
"My! I feel like Pollyanna would," sighed Julie. "'I'm glad, glad, glad' we weren't standing under that tree!"
"We can only die once," responded Ruth, sighing as she gazed down at the flooded road.
"Ruth thinks she'd rather die quickly, than by slow degrees in being choked in this mud," laughed Julie, catching Ruth's thought.
Every one laughed and that made them feel more cheerful. Then just back of them came the sound of horses' hoofs and a kindly voice called out, "Well, well, this is some plight you-all are in, eh?"