"What
d'ye suppose it is, anyhow?"
"_Dark!_" exclaimed Addison hardily. "Just plain dark!"
"Oh, Addison!" exclaimed Theodora reprovingly. "Don't try to joke about
a thing like this."
"It may be the end of the world," Ellen murmured.
"The world has had a good many ends to it," said Addison. "Which end do
you think this is, Nell?"
But neither Ellen nor Theodora cared to reply to him. Their low,
frightened voices increased my uneasiness. I could think of nothing
except that rainbow in the morning; "morning," "warning," seemed to ring
in my ears.
We climbed into the wagon and started homeward, but it was so dark that
we had to plod along slowly. Old Sol was unusually torpid, as if the
ominous obscurity had dazed him, too. After a time he stopped short and
snorted; we heard the brush crackle and caught a glimpse of a large
animal crossing the road ahead of us.
"That's a bear," Thomas said. "Bears are out, just as if it were night."
Some minutes passed before we could make Old Sol go on; and again we
heard owls hooting in the woods.
Long before we got down to the cleared land, however, the sky began
gradually to grow lighter.
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