Litchfield enquirer., 1874-05-07

vest the. most abundant that had been seen for many years: and now, in thirty six hours, the whole labor of the year l was destroyed. Nor were it's visible ef- feets less terrible than disastrous. The destruction of property; the overblown pine fenements: the wreck of the fencing, everywhere opening the mnch-iniured fields to devastation by the vast herds of wild cattle that range these Southern ever glades; the pine forests, shattered, bro
 ken, and torn to pieces, so that 8 wagon and team could not go it's own length in any direction-all united to show wildly the terrible power of the hurricane. Our attention recalled to these facts, there was lengthening of visages as the pro- lessor resumed the story of his own ad- ventures.
 ''As you remember, the cyclone set in with a rising wind from the north and north-northwest, settling into the latter.
 Until dark, 1t had not reached pitch of unusual violence, and just before that time, though the waves were running high, ventured again into the water, the biockading alligators having been driven out to sea, so to speak, by the storm. It was the rashest thing ever undertaken. | The wind, setting for three hours from
 the north, had put the whole body of wa ter in motion, and the surface rolled and foamed and dashed in white, chopping, strangling crests. I tossed and bobbed about on the surface, as helpless as l cork. 1t was more providential than through discreet effort that was again | carried under my friend the black jack, l and I crawled back drenched through 1 and through, and chilled, this time, to the bone. Fortunately, had succeeded in getting fire out of a whole box of par Tor matches, a wretched imposition whose unsulphurous phosphorus attracts and generates moisture in it's own chemical | composition. collected the fire as well as could; lighted huge ight-wood- that is. pitch-pine = log, and, backed against an immense Hve-oak, prepared to make night of it.
 ''It was the widest, worst night that fell upon this earth anywhere; and had chosen the gloomiest, loneliest spot in all the land. For a while, the mass of jun gle protected the fire, but it soon began to roar and sparkle in the wind. The huge flame was torn to pieces like rags by the storm. The hurricane beloved and roared, and I could hear the moan and dash of the lake growing more and more metallic in it's violence, to dull. .clanking plunge. Yet it was a calm to what follow ed. I could still see the glimmer of the cottage lamps at Fannistan, across the water, and contrast its comforts in my mind with my own exposed, dangerous situation. It occurred to me then, that if I died in the violence of that night, or was drowned, no one would know 1t or suspect 1t. I had given out to every one, even to the last of the colony had met, an intention to go to Cross Prairie. If my disfgured remains were tossed on shore. not soul would suppose 1t was the pro- lessor. As I heard the lake moan and moan in the surging, like living thing in | trouble, felt a passionate horror of con- hitting my unknown body to Its care. I was full of an earnest human yearning that this poor mortal frame, that had served me faithfully so long, should have benedictiOn, recognition, and rest i'll con- secrated ground. But how to effect 1t? How to increase the probabilities of its becoming known2 My fly boxes were none of them waterproof; my india-rub- Der Satchel had mouth as wide as church door, and the conventional bot tie. jug, or phial of shipwrecked mariner. was not in my collection. Finally, it oc- cured to me that my watch, double cased gold, had my name scratched deep ly on the inner plate with penknife My guard chain was long buckskin cord | that had been steeped in neat's-ioot oil, | and was waterproof. Using this, tied l my watch into the watch pocket, but so | attached to my limbs that it would not be lost while the igatures of my physical frame held together. But long before l this was planned or completed, the intol- erable fury of the elements increased, in the dense volumes of descending rain | floods. It exceeded in extent and quanti- | ty any rainfall ever experienced. felt the incipient asphyxia, the gasping for breath that attends submersion; and the scarce and scattered oxygen, in the whirl and storm, refused to fill and satisfy my lungs. How the whole Armament blazed with continuous flashing, and shook with l the sharp. imminent thunder of it's de- scending bolts! A tall pine, at little distance, went quivering and bursting from the dazzling pleonasm of staring brightness into the deep, thunderous abysses of darkness. I thought had been struck. My whole brain, not sim l ply the optic nerve, but my very body, in every fibre and corpuscle, saw the furious. | sudden brightness; and the impulse went l quivering from the nervous centres out to the fingers ends. Not an electric cur l ront from without, inwardly, but the TO verse; as if the animal magnetism of my whole corporal frame rushed out exult- ant to greet it's kindred fluid in the victo- rious thunderbolt. I am not asserting a | scientific fact, but illustrating physical sensation by such analogy as it suggests. "Tbe next day I examined the stricken pine. It was gnarled; the grain ran in intricate lnvolution by twists and curves around the trunk. At the blossom end the sinuous bends were large and sweep l ing from limb to limb; and here the l1ght- ming rent the flores open. splitting the tree, and breaking It of high up the trunk. But where the curves in the grain were knotted and contorted, 1t appeared as if the subtle fluid, impatient at its te- dious path, had burst the solid wood into flmy. feathery fragments
 1 "I need not dwell on that hideous night, For nightmare of confused storm and darkness. Clinging to the slippery bulk of the giant oak, expected every moment to be blown out of it's sheltering arms, or to hear the crash of it's jarring trunk. All sense of might or strength or durability was gone. Huge trees of cen turies' growth were rent like saplings, and | wind, the sharp. sudden crackle of the thunder, and the dazzling blaze of light ming, confused all thought. I could hear the waves beating and surging with that hollow, metallic clang, like huge sheets of copper banged together, and knew the lake was rising with fearful rapidity
 Dense floods of rain were blown and dash ed over me like waves of the sea; and felt or thought felt the slime of reptiles crawling to higher ground, or into my wretched seat, whenever put my hands l down.
 '1 cannot say that slept. I cannot recall any distinct change from one state
 to the other, and was always conscious
 of where was, and of the driving storm
 and horror about me. But there did
 come change in which was conscious
 through it all of dear presence eneour-
 aging and strengthening me. The psy-
 chology of sleep is the least explained