Pride of Place 381 



all other sensations lay waiting. The storm was at 

 its height, the sky nearly touched the sea. The waves 

 rolled long and sullenly, unable to rise to their desired 

 size, for the pressure of the wind held them down. 

 The air was fuU of wetness, it was hardly to be known 

 from the sea itself. But I was shut in from it all by 

 a downy envelope, my body (you could hold three 

 in your hand at once), hot, fully sheltered, palpitating 

 with eager living. I skimmed along the hissing, 

 curdling surface of the sea, eating my fill in peace, 

 and utterly unheeding the war of wind and wave as 

 I did so. But when my hunger was appeased I felt 

 no slothful desire to fold my wings and sleep. Added 

 energy, ecstasy of movement impelled me, and filled 

 me with great content. The bliss of living possessed 

 me entirely, and although not another of my kind was 

 near, I felt no need of one. I was satisfied with myself 

 for company. 



But presently I saw, looming up through the gloom 

 of the spindrift, a vast shadowy bulk which for the 

 moment gave me a strange sensation of dread. I did 

 not know it ; was it my island home that I had un- 

 knowingly come back to ? I drew nearer to it in spite 

 of my fears, and then suddenly knew that I had nothing 

 to dread. It was a ship, a great vessel being sorely 

 beaten and battered by the mighty sea. How proud 

 I felt as I saw that gigantic bulk straining to keep her 

 place, quivering to the summit of her tall masts, and 

 rolling in the seething smother like a dying whale, that 

 I, whose body was almost as a grain of dust by her 

 side, was so absolutely safe, comfortable, and free from 

 all apprehension even of danger ! 



I saw men for the first time. Strange beings they 

 were, tottering about that great thing as I did ere I 

 learned to fly, evidently not at home, evidently very 



