Thus we progressed till the evening advanced, when the clouds gathered thick, and then began to roll towards the north-west in dark threatening masses, right in the teeth of a brisk, fitful breeze. "We'll get it presently," observed our driver, eyeing the drift; "hot as mush, and 'most as thick, by the looks on 't." All at once the wind lulled; then it shifted round to the south-east, and blew out in heavy gusts that bent the tall pines together like rushes: upon this change, lightning quickly followed, playing in the distance about the edge of the darkening horizon. For about two hours we were favoured with these premonitory symptoms, and thus allowed ample time for conjecture as to the probable violence of the storm in active preparation. Some of our Box crew decided as they desired, that it would pass away in threatenings only; others, that all this heralding would be followed by a violent storm, or perhaps by a hurricane. It now occurred to me that, in moments of enthusiasm, encouraged by security, I had expressed myself desirous of witnessing the wild charge of a furious hurricane on the thick ranks of the forest. I confess, however, that, having within the last twenty-four hours witnessed its effects, this desire was considerably abated. With the probable approach of the event, my ardour, like Acres's courage, "oozed away;" and the prospect of such a visitation, whilst exposed on the _Box_, became the reverse of pleasant. In this uncertainty I resolved to consult our driver's experience; so, coming boldly to the point, demanded, "I say, driver, do you calculate that we shall be caught in a hurricane?" "I'll tell you how that'll be exact," replied our oracle: "If the rain comes down pretty, we shan't have no hurricane; if it holds up dry, why, we shall." Henceforth never did ducks pray more devoutly for rain than did the crew of the _Box_, although without hope or thought of shelter; but, on the contrary, with every possible chance of a break-down or upset, which would have made the forest our bed, but stripped of the "Leaves so green, O!" about which your ballad-mongers love to sing, with their toes over the fender, and the hail pattering melodiously upon the pantiles. At last, our prayers were heard; and we all, I believe, breathed more freely as the gates of the sky opened, and the falling flood subdued and stilled the hot wind whose heavy gusts rushing among the pines had been the reverse of musical. The thunder-clouds, hitherto confined to the southern horizon, now closed down upon the forest, deepening its already darkness: at a snail's pace we still proceeded, and luckily found an Indian party encamped close by a sort of bridge lying across a swamp it would have been impossible, as the driver assured us, to have crossed without a good light.