30.
Suddenly he saw the trees at the end of his garden rise up some eight
feet. A quick brain-wave suggested an earthquake to him at once, and
half-unconsciously he jumped from the verandah for all he was worth.
As he alighted on the lawn, his house crashed down behind him.
There were some further milder shocks. I was engaged in shaving early
one morning in our little wooden house, when I felt myself pushed
violently against the dressing-table, almost removing my chin with the
razor at the same time. I suspected my nephew of a practical joke, and
called out angrily to him. In an aggrieved voice he protested that he
had not touched me, but had himself been hurled by an unseen agency
against the wardrobe. Then came a perfect cannonade of nuts from an
overhanging tree on to the wooden roof of our modest temporary abode,
and still we did not understand. I had at that time an English valet,
the most stolid man I have ever come across. He entered the hut with a
pair of brown shoes in one hand, a pair of white ones in the other.
In the most matter-of-fact way he observed, "There's been an
earthquake, so perhaps you would like to wear your brown shoes to-day,
instead of the white ones." By what process of reasoning he judged
brown shoes more fitted to earthquake conditions than white ones,
rather escaped me.
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