there warn't nothing to do but just hold still, and try and be ready to stand from under when the lightning struck.
I had just one little glimpse of the old gentleman when he come in, then the bed hid him. Mrs. Phelps she jumps for him and says:
"Has he come?"
"No," says her husband.
"Good-ness gracious!" she says, "what in the world can have become of him?"
"I can't imagine," says the old gentleman; "and I must say, it makes me dreadful uneasy."
"Uneasy!" she says, "I'm ready to go distracted! He must a come; and you've missed him along the road. I know it's so—something tells me so."
"Why Sally, I couldn't miss him along the road—you know that."
"But oh, dear, dear, what will Sis say! He must a come! You must a missed him. He—"
"Oh, don't distress me any more'n I'm already distressed. I don't know what in the world to make of it. I'm at my wit's end, and I don't mind acknowledging 't I'm right down scared. But there's no hope that's he come! for he couldn't come and me miss him. Sally, it's terrible—just terrible—something's happened to the boat, sure!"
"Why, Silas! Look yonder!—up the road!—ain't that somebody coming?"
He sprung to the window at the head of the bed, and that give Mrs. Phelps the chance she wanted. She stooped down quick, at the foot of the bed, and give me a pull, and out I come; and when he turned back from the window, there she stood, a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire, and I standing pretty meek and sweaty alongside. The old gentleman stared, and says:
