Jane Curtin

Adjoining was her bedroom with Bebe's couch alongside her own.

The door stood open and the room with its white monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious.

Alcee flung himself onto a rocker and Calixto nervously began to gather up from the floor the lengths of a cotton sheet which she had been sewing.

"'If this keeps up, do you say if a levee's gonna stand it?'

she exclaimed.

"'What have you got to do with the levees?'

"'I got enough to do.

And there's Bobino with Bebe out in that storm, if he only didn't left Friedheimers.'

"'Let us hope, Calixto, that Bobino's got sense enough to come in out of a cyclone.'

She went and stood at the window with a greatly disturbed look on her face.

She wiped the frame that was clouded with moisture.

It was stiflingly hot.

Alcie got up and joined her at the window, looking over her shoulder.

The rain was coming down in sheets, obscuring the view of far-off cabins and enveloping the distant wood in a gray mist.

The playing of the lightning was incessant.

A bolt struck a tall chinaberry tree at the edge of the field.

It filled all visible space with a blinding glare, and the crash seemed to invade the very boards they stood upon.

Calixto put her hands to her eyes, and with a cry, staggered backward.

Alci's arms encircled her, and for an instant he drew her close and spasmodically to him.

"'Bonté!'