KULIGIN (coming into the middle of the scene and addressing the crowd). Why, what are you afraid of, I should like to know! every blade of grass, every flower is rejoicing now, while we try to get away and are as frightened as if it were a disaster! The storm kill us indeed! It's not a storm to be dreaded, it's a blessing! Yes, a blessing! Everything's dreadful to you. If the Northern Lights shine in the heavens--you ought to admire and marvel at "the dawn breaking in the land of midnight!" But you are in terror, and imagine it means war or flood. If a comet comes--I can't take my eyes from it! a thing so beautiful! the stars we have looked upon to our hearts' content, they are always with us, but that is something new; well, one must gaze and admire! But you're afraid even to look at the sky, and all in a tremble! You make a bogey out of everything. Ah, what a people! I'm not afraid, you see. Come, sir, let's go on! BORIS. Yes, let us go! it's more terrible here! [_Goes._ SCENE V The Same, without BORIS and KULIGIN. MME. KABANOVA. Well, that's a pretty sermon he gave us! Something worth hearing, and no mistake! What have the times come to, when such as he turn teacher! If an old man talks so, what can we expect from the young ones! A WOMAN. The whole sky's overcast. It's covered up all over, as it were, with a cap. FIRST. Eh, mate, see how the storm cloud is rolling into a ball, as though there were something alive turning round in it. And see how it's creeping up towards us, creeping like a live thing! SECOND. Mark my words, that storm's not coming up for nothing. It's the truth I tell you; I know. It'll strike someone dead, or set fire to a house; you'll see, look what an extraordinary colour! KATERINA _(listening)._ What are they saying? They say someone will be struck dead. KABANOV. You know what stuff they talk, any nonsense that comes into their heads. MME. KABANOVA. Don't you criticise your elders! They know better than you. Old people have forewarnings of all sorts. Old people don't talk at random. KATERINA _(to her husband)._ Dear Tihon, I know who will be struck dead. VARVARA _(to Katerina, softly)._ If only you would hold your tongue! KABANOV. How do you know? KATERINA. It will strike me. Pray for me, then. [_Enter Old Lady with footmen. Katerina with a shriek hides her face._ SCENE VI The Same and the OLD LADY.