MILORD THE WEATHER 



unbearable. I had two of my staff hold a piece of 

 glass so that I could look through it. Once in a 

 while I caught sight of Gurnet's Rock through the 

 waves ; Castle and the other islands did not visually 

 exist. I could see no water anywhere — only foam, 

 spindrift, and spray which rose and was carried 

 over our heads at least a hundred feet above the 

 level of the sea. 



For another day and a night we dared not slacken 

 our efforts, and then the wind and sea gradually 

 went down and a morning broke clear and calm. 

 Weather had only played with us after all, trying 

 us out with the fringe of one side of the real hurri- 

 cane. The wind was reported as not reaching hurri- 

 cane force — having attained only 72 miles an hour ! 

 I recalled a typhoon in a Chinese junk and offered 

 up thanks to Weather that we had been let off so 

 easily. 



Birds crept out from hiding places, daring to 

 preen themselves and search once more for food, 

 a torn butterfly sunned itself, preparing for its few 

 remaining days of life; the goldenrod was beaten 

 flat, the sage-bush lifted bare, dead stems. A thick 

 carpet of berries and needles covered the island, but 

 not a cedar had fallen : since birth they had prepared 

 for just such crises as this. So I thought until I 

 made a careful round of the island and then I found 

 two which had been uprooted but had dropped upon 

 the shoulders of sturdy comrades. It seemed as if 

 the years of mutual strife for sun and soil had de- 

 veloped a close kinship among these gnarled trees, 



169 



