The room was dark as night, for the shutters were closed.

Mrs.Babcock flung one open peremptorily.
"We'll break our necks here, if we don't have some light," she said.
The hail began to rattle on the window-panes.
"It's hailin'!" the women chorussed.
"Are your windows all shut ?" Mrs.Babcock demanded of Lois.
And the girl said, in a dazed way, that the bedroom windows were open, and then went mechanically to shut them.
"Shut the blinds, too!" screamed Mrs.Babcock.

"The hail's comin' in this side terrible heavy.

I'm afraid it'll break the glass." Mrs.
Babcock herself, her face screwed tightly against an onslaught of wind and hail, shut the blinds, and the room was again plunged in darkness.

"We'll have to stan' it," said she.