The Bells at Thor's Funeral I was dreaming that I was Little Nell tied to the railroad track, and a huge locomotive was roaring down on me. Struggling to get free, I woke myself up-but the roar continued. The roar was real, not a dream. I confess I am rather slow in the mornings. It did not occur to me right away that I should be alarmed. I turned my cheek upon the pillow so that I might see the clock, which read ten minutes past five. The roar continued, building to a crescendo, and in the midst of it church bells began to ring. How odd, I thought, for I knew it was not Sunday, and five o'clock is too early for a funeral. A great boom sounded beneath the high descant of discordant bells, and I thought: This must be Thor's funeral, and they are sending the Thunder God off appropriately, with a bang. At that moment I was physically jolted wide awake and realized that we were having an earthquake. Later I would learn that my clock was slow, for it was actually twelve minutes past five on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, when the Great Earthquake began.
