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sleeping in the calmest sunshine. The contrast was singular
- of that warm picture, with its yellow lights and soft blue
shadows, with the turbulence and chill and gloom of the
station from which we viewed it. We had but a moment to look
at it; for not only did the clouds sink before our eyes, but
the wind scudded round to the opposite point of the compass,
throwing one after another of us flat as it passed. Within a
few minutes, one of us had six falls, from the force of the
wind, and the treachery of the ground,- now, in a trice, a
medley of small streams. It was impossible to stop the
guide, for a moment's breath. In the roar of the blast, and
crash of the thunder, and pelt of the hail, one might as
well have spoken to the elements: so it was necessary for us
all to keep up our pace, that he might not stride away from
us entirely. Through stumblings and slidings innumerable, we
did this,- the lightning playing about our faces the while,
like a will-o'-the-wisp on the face of a bog. The hail and
rain had drenched us to the skin in three minutes. The first
hailstones reached the skin. They were driven in at every
opening of our clothes; they cut our necks behind, and
filled our shoes. Our hats and bonnets were immediately
soaked through, and every body's hair wringing wet. The
thunder seemed to roll on our very skulls. in this weather
we went plunging on for four miles, through spungy (sic)
bogs, turbid streams, whose bridges of stones were hidden in
the rushing waters; or by narrow pathways, each one of which
was converted by the storm into an impetuous brook. When we
had descended into a region where we could hear ourselves
speak, we congratulated one another on our prudence
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