"Let's go find Theodora and
Nell. I guess we'd better go home--if it's coming on night in the middle
of the afternoon."
He tried to laugh, for Addison had always prided himself on being free
from all superstition. But I saw that he was startled; and he admitted
afterwards that he, too, had remembered about that rainbow in the
morning, and had also thought of the comet that had appeared a few years
before and that many people believed to presage the end of the world.
We started to run back, but it had already grown so dark that we had to
pay special heed to our steps. We could not walk fast. To this day I
remember how strange and solemn the chanting of the whippoorwills and
the hoarse _skook_! of the nighthawks sounded to me. No doubt I was
frightened. It was exactly like evening; the same chill was in the air.
At last we reached the place where we had left the others, but they were
not there. Addison called to Theodora and Ellen several times in low,
suppressed tones; I, too, felt a great disinclination to shout or speak
aloud.
"I guess they've all gone back where we left the wagon," Addison said at
last.
We made our way through the tangled bushes, brush and woods, down to
Otter Brook.
Pages:
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268