4.  The clouds now rolled in volumes over the mountain tops; their summits still bright and snowy, but the lower parts of an inky blackness.  The rain began to patter down in broad and scattered drops; the wind freshened, and curled up the waves; at length, it seemed as if the bellying clouds were torn open by the mountain tops, and complete torrents of rain came rattling down.  The lightning leaped from cloud to cloud, and streamed quivering against the rocks, splitting and rending the stoutest forest trees.  The thunder burst in tremendous explosions; the peals were echoed from mountain to mountain; they crashed upon Dunderberg, and then rolled up the long defile of the Highlands, each headland making a new echo, until old Bull Hill seemed to bellow back the storm.

5.  For a time the scudding rack and mist and the sheeted rain almost hid the landscape from the sight.  There was a fearful gloom, illumined still more fearfully by the streams of lightning which glittered among the raindrops.  Never had Dolph beheld such an absolute warring of the elements; it seemed as if the storm was tearing and rending its way through the mountain defile, and had brought all the artillery of heaven into action.

Definitions.—­1.  Lan’guor (pro. lang’gwer), exhaustion of strength, dullness. 3.  Re-marked’, noticed, observed.  Pred-e-ces’-sor, the one going immediately before.  Clam’or-ous-ly, with a loud noise. 4.  Bel’ly-ing, swelling out.  De-file’, a long, narrow pass. 5.  Rack, thin, flying, broken clouds.  El’e-ments, a term usually including fire, water, earth, and air.

Notes.—­1.  The Highlands are a mountainous region in New York, bordering the Hudson River above Peekskill.

2.  The Dunderberg and Antony’s Nose are names of two peaks of the Highlands.

4.  Bull Hill, also called Mt.  Taurus, is 15 miles farther north.

XXXVI.  APRIL DAY.

Caroline Anne Southey (b. 1786, d.1854), the second wife of Southey the poet, and better known as Caroline Bowles, was born near Lymington, Hampshire, England.  Her first work, “Ellen Fitzarthur,” a poem, was published in 1820; and for more than twenty years her writings were published anonymously.  In 1839 she was married to Mr. Southey, and survived him over ten years.  Her poetry is graceful in expression, and full of tenderness, though somewhat melancholy.  The following extract first appeared in 1822 in a collection entitled, “The Widow’s Tale, and other Poems.”

1.  All day the low-hung clouds have dropped
     Their garnered fullness down;
   All day that soft, gray mist hath wrapped
     Hill, valley, grove, and town.

2.  There has not been a sound to-day
     To break the calm of nature;
   Nor motion, I might almost say,
     Of life or living creature;

3.  Of waving bough, or warbling bird,
     Or cattle faintly lowing;
   I could have half believed I heard
     The leaves and blossoms growing.