Most of the
hailstones were the size of a hen's egg, and crashed through windows
and pounded against the house, making a noise that was not only
deafening but paralyzing. The sounds of breaking glass came from every
direction and Hulda and I rushed from one room to the other, not
knowing what to do, for it was the same scene everyplace--floors
covered with broken glass and hail pouring in through the openings.
The ground upon which the officers' quarters are built is a little
sloping, therefore it had to be cut away, back of the kitchen, to make
the floor level for a large shed where ice chest and such things are
kept, and there are two or three steps at the door leading from the
shed up to the ground outside. This gradual rise continues far back to
the mountains, so by the time the hail and water reached us from above
they had become one broad, sweeping torrent, ever increasing in
volume. In one of the boards of our shed close to the steps, and just
above the ground, there happened to be a large "knot" which the
pressure of the water soon forced out, and the water and hailstones
shot through and straight across the shed as if from a fire hose,
striking the wall of the main building! The sight was most
laughable--that is, at first it was; but we soon saw that the awful
rush of water that was coming in through the broken sash and the
remarkable hose arrangement back of the kitchen was rapidly flooding
us.
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