Racing the Storm

Text 1: The Last Row, by Marion Edgeworth

An original short story extract.

‘Twenty minutes,’ Grandad said, squinting west, ‘and not a second more.’ Over Pen Hill the clouds were piling up, black on purple, and the air had gone thick and still, as if the whole valley were holding its breath.

Danny ran. Everyone ran. Mum drove the tractor with the trailer bouncing behind it, Aunt Rose stacked, and Danny and his cousin flung bales up with their forks until his palms burned and his shoulders screamed. Sweat ran into his eyes. Chaff stuck to his neck. The bales were heavier than they had been in the morning, heavier with every swing, and the field seemed to grow longer the faster they worked.

A rumble rolled down the valley. Then another, nearer. The first fat drops slapped the dust. ‘Leave the last row!’ Grandad bellowed, but nobody listened. They threw, and stacked, and threw, and the trailer swayed through the gate just as the sky split open with a crack that Danny felt in his teeth. In the barn they collapsed on the straw, laughing, gasping, soaked, while the rain hammered the roof like applause.

How does Marion Edgeworth use language and structure to show the urgency of bringing in the hay?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.