THE HURRICANE 109 
cuits for a pillow, and quickly fell asleep. My wife could 
not sleep so easily. Her thoughts turned to the house, now 
probably a ruin, which for six years had been our home and 
where our four children were born. 
“Packed as we were, like sardines in a can, there was 
little room to move, and I was roughly awakened in the 
night by a kick in the face from one of the natives. The 
wind still roared outside. Madgie awoke, asking for a drink. 
But the water was finished. ‘“There’s water in the bedroom,’ 
she said. ‘We have no bedroom now, Madgie,’ said her 
mother. But Saloki, always ready, looked around and found 
a coconut and cracked it, and after a refreshing drink, 
Madgie went off to sleep again. 
“All night long, while we lay, Nailo watched outside, bind- 
ing down the thatch. With the dawn we arose to survey 
the havoc wrought by the storm. The wind, still from the 
northwest, had almost died away; the rain had ceased, and 
the sun came out, smiling on the ruin. The ground was 
carpeted with oranges and coconuts; the trees were leafless; 
great trunks of uprooted or broken trees lay scattered around. 
The fences were all down. 
“The wreck and ruin of our premises was unspeakable. 
The whole front of the building had fallen. One end had 
been tossed fifteen feet back, the walls demolished, and the 
roof thrown down on the floor. The middle, in its fall, had 
knocked in the end of the back wing. The beds were bent 
and twisted; and books, clothing, and pictures were buried 
in lime. Furniture, chairs, sofas, were lying crushed and 
broken. The weatherboard schoolhouse had been thrown 
topsy-turvy and wrenched to pieces. The garden, which 
was ablaze with bloom the morning before, was now dotted 
with bushes blackened with spray, or torn up by the roots. 
As we stood sadly surveying the ruins of our home, we 
felt thankful that God had answered our prayer for pro- 
tection. Saula said, ‘We were expecting nothing but death 
in the night.’ However, no one had been killed, no one was 
hurt, and our stores of food were safe. 
