You and Gesima shall do everything just as you planned, and I am very glad to have her go with you. Now come to dinner. Gesima is changing her dress and will come later."
Though it was not yet quite evening, everything suddenly got so dark that it was almost necessary to light the lights. You could hardly see to eat. A loud clap of thunder made them all jump. It was the beginning of a magnificent thunderstorm, with an uninterrupted rolling of thunder coming from every part of the heavens, and a flood of pouring rain which came battering down on the steaming roofs in sheets. From time to time a bolt of lightning, instead of slanting from the sky, sizzled across the street like the stroke of a gigantic white hot. sword. Then from the laden clouds the torrents of rain beat down in waterfalls on the houses, twice as hard as before, although one would have said that it could not possibly rain any harder than it was raining already.
The cadets had been a little shy at first, but in the midst of the roar of the storm they began to feel at home; the ice was melted. They helped themselves liberally to the food, and attacked the pudding in good earnest.
"Why not let in some fresh air?" said the Colonel when the thunder had begun to roll farther and farther away, and the rain fell straight down in regular cadence. The little boys stood before the open window, stuck their heads out so as to let the drops splash on their noses, and sang at the top of their lungs: "Oh moon, how silently you go your way,…"
The Colonel began to laugh and told them they'd better sing "Oh, my good friend" instead, because they had stuck together so faithfully on their trip. So they did as he suggested. Then the Colonel's wife asked them whether, by any chance,
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