CHAPTER XVI 



JOTHAM STORIES 



Almost daily in our hottest season the east 

 wind brings coolness and refreshment to the 

 dwellers at the sea beach. Nor does it stop at 

 the seacoast. Often hills a dozen miles inland 

 feel its cool caress. 



The inland, simmering beneath the sun, with 

 the thermometer in the eighties or worse, sends 

 heavenward great columns of heated air. To 

 take the place of this the lower strata draws in 

 from the sea, filled with the coolness and sparkle 

 of the brine and informed with that mysterious 

 tonic which seems born of wind-tossed salt water. 

 At such times the east wind brings the breath 

 of life to our nostrils and sets the jaded motor 

 centres of our nerves atingle with new power. 



Often we dwellers far inland get more than a 

 cool breath of the sea. Then for a day or two a 

 northeaster comes pelting over the seaward range 

 of hills, murking the sky with dun clouds, whin- 

 ing about the eaves and roaring down the chim- 



201 



