It was a hot day in the summer of 1881 when out of nowhere, lightning struck. In the new town of De Smet, in the middle of the wide open prairie of the Dakota Territories, such a thing had never been seen before, by anyone. Not even the old Indian who had told the settlers about the Hard Winter could have said he had ever seen such a thing.
However, unheard of or not, lightning DID strike. In the very center of town, right on Main Street, lighting struck, not once, not twice, but repeatedly without stopping for 10 minutes. It was Monday, and Laura and Pa had just walked into the town, on the way to drop Laura off to work sewing shirts with Mrs. White.
"Oh Pa!" cried Laura when she saw the lightning striking the street in the same place, her voice catching in her throat with wonderment and perhaps a little fear. "Oh Pa!" she cried again, clutching his hand.
"Come quickly Laura!" said Pa sharply, pulling Laura into his store building, which stood clean and empty. Having never seen lightning behave so strangely, in broad daylight and in the middle of June, Pa thought it best to be cautious and take shelter inside. "Hush Half-Pint, and we shall see what happens," he said to Laura once they were inside, though he needn't have because Laura was quite, only watching the lighting with round eyes through the window.
"Oh Pa," she breathed. "Look… the air is all shimmery where the lighting is. Almost light somebody is blowing on it and the everything is just a picture wavering."
Pa nodded, though he was surprised to hear Laura speak so strangely. But then, the lightning was strange itself, and unusual things sometimes require unusual speech to describe them.
They sat in silence, as indeed did everybody else who had been along Main Street just a few minutes ago, and watched the lighting strike the ground, making the air shiver and dance, and dust rise up. As the minutes ticked by, the lightning grew more and more, till they could hardly stand to look at it, it had grown so bright.
And when at last it ceased, and everyone had uncovered their stinging eyes, a collective intake of air occurred as they made out the form of a person standing where the lighting had been striking just seconds ago.
"Pa!" whispered Laura, her heart beating wildly. "Is it a person?"
He nodded, his own heart racing in his chest. The figure in the street was standing straight, and had not moved a muscle. Standing up from the chair where he had been sitting, Laura on his lap, he set her down and looked at her sternly. "Stay here Laura, until I tell you may come out."
Laura's eyes widened. "Are you going to go outside?" Pa's nod made her gasp in spite of herself. Laura had always known Pa was brave and strong, and not afraid of anything, but she had never supposed he was this brave. "May I look through the window?" she asked, excited and curious now that the lightning had stopped.
"You may, Laura, so long as you do not call attention to yourself." With that, Pa straightened his shoulders, opened the door, and strode purposefully into the morning sunshine.