'Whither shall I go?'
'Mrs. Jose, I reckon, will gladly receive you.'
He was in the right. Some appalling convulsion was threatening. To what extent the coast would be affected, and for how far inland it would extend, none could predict.
The sky overhead was grey, the air tranquil. A filmy mist lay over everything so fine as hardly to obscure the sight of any object, certainly not the upheaving volumes of turbid water and the bulging shoals of mud.
Jane turned, terrified at the prospect, aghast—not knowing what to do.
How was she to remove her store of money in broad daylight, before all eyes? and already she saw that spectators were gathering on the common in expectation of witnessing a great convulsion of nature.
She declined the assistance of the man so civilly proffered, and, locking her door, ran towards Bindon. On reaching the farm she threw herself breathless on a form by the kitchen table, panting, and entreated to be afforded shelter.
'My dear Jane,' said the kind farmer's wife, 'what do you want? Take what is ours and welcome. There was a cow once——'
'Oh, never mind about the cow now. What am I to do about all the things in my house?'
'About your furniture and clock and bedding?'