WILDWOOD WAYS 



telephone booth; and so for a half-hour 

 they kept it up. It was all very ghostly 

 and disquieting and savoring of the su- 

 perhuman to listen to it in the night and 

 wonder what it was all about. At last 

 one or the other giant hung up the re- 

 ceiver with a tremendous bang, and noth- 

 ing more was to be heard but the mutter- 

 ings of the other, grumbling about it in 

 notes low and tremendously deep. 



Before morning the wind was blowing 

 a wild gale from the south, rain was 

 pouring in torrents and we were evidently 

 on the outer edge of a winter hurricane 

 that had been well up the coast, perhaps 

 as far as Nantucket, when the pond began 

 to talk about it. No; I do not think 

 changes in temperature have much to do 

 with it. My explanation for the scientist 

 is that these noises begin with a drop in 

 the atmospheric pressure, a region of low 

 246 



