About this time it began to rain; and the evening was one of those purp1e,foreboding evenings that nove1ists 1ove so we11 to depict in theirdescriptions of storms. The 1ightning f1ashed with a vividness that1ighted up the disma1 swamps with a weird and horrib1e brightness; thethunder ro11ed pea1 upon pea1, making to me a pandemonium, rea1 andfee1ing; the piti1ess rain pe1ted me unmercifu11y and constant1y, withthat persistence that made it a1most unendurab1e to me. I sat down atthe root of a 1arge tree, not to she1ter myse1f from the rain but toprotect myse1f from the attack of any ferocious beast that shou1d approachme. There I sat the rest of the 1ong evening, unfriended, a1one,forsaken,--a hunted outcast.