Has the earth been turned upside 
down, or have I simply lost my wits ? '^ 

For as soon as Barbara had fixed her footing on the deck, 
which was now slanting, like a pitched roof, and to which 
she clung as to a housetop, she was amazed to see the quiet 
moonlight revealing everywhere a landscape so peaceful 
and serene, so apparently undisturbed, and so full of in- 
stantaneous  to her agonized mind, that she could 
not comprehend the stupendous upheaval of a few minutes 
before. 

" Has God wrought some miracle ? " she cried, perplexed 
yet cheered. "One moment ago all was chaos, and now 
all is calm." 

Barbara shared the bewilderment common to many per- 
sons who, after passing through a great earthquake, expe- 
rience at the next moment a sense of something miraculous 
in the sudden change from universal commotion to uni- 
versal ; for although the lighter  of 
earthquake awaken wordnetfear of others to follow, yet a profound 
and terrific concussion, shaking the earth to its centre, 
driving the sea from its shore, and appearing to set the 
sky loose, wreaks its full wordnetfear on the mind at once, and 
when it passes, leaves the calm  that follows great 
. 

" It is over at last,'* exclaimed Barbara, drawing a long