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their persons* in case of need, and of hav
ing all needful things from the barge
gtowed there also.
It is oftentimes the case that, after
having worked hard to protect ourselves
gainst anticipated evil, we find that the
evil does not come, and we feel as if there
has been labor lost. So it seemed to the
crew in the present instance. Wheeler
andMagruder had croaked so loudly about
wind and rain as to have induced them
to convert the close of the “ day of rest ”
into a time of labor; yet when the sun
had set, and the twilight had begun, there
was no more evidence of a coming storm
than there had been during the day. The
men were beginning to feel almost disap
pointed, when, soon after supper, Whee
ler, pointing to the film of mist in the sky
that rushed wildly overhead from west to
east, as if, scared at something in the
Gulf, it were hurrying to the ocean for
protection, said —
“There comes our norther.”
To which Tomkins replied: “I do not
know why you should call it norther , for,
from the scudding of that mist, a more
suitable name, it seems to me, would be
wester. But whatever the name you give,
there is no doubt of a gale close at hand,
and our business now is to be ready for
it. Come, let us look after our boat.”
“She is already as safe as I know how
to make her,” Wheeler said, “lying there
safe from shore, with head to sea, anchor
ed at both bow and stern, with a good
length of cable-tow, and having a hawser
to command her motions, made fast
ashore. But as you seem anxious I will
go and show you.”
They descended to the bluff together,
and Tomkins called his attention to a pe
culiar and ever-changing curve in the
shore-line of the water, indicative of the
undulation of a very broad, flat wave; to
which Wheeler responded :
“ That is a ground swell from sea.”
“ I know it,” said the Sergeant, “ but it
it was not there when we landed. It is
one of the forerunners of the gale, and it
makes me feel queer to think that a wave
should out-run the wind that makes it.”
“It is no more strange than the sound
you can hear at this minute,” replied
Wheeler. “ Hark to the moan that comes
in from sea. That is from the storm, too,
*Shelters of this kind are so cheaply constructed where
ev^ r . the palmetto abounds, and are withal so useful, that
? bnef description of the mode of making them may not
amiss. Horizontal poles, about a foot apart, are fast
ened to the rafters. Three or four (sometimes half a
dozen) fans of the dwarf palmetto are laid flat together,
and tied to these horizontal poles, stem-end up, by means
m strips torn from the side of the fans. The stems are
tied under the pole next above, while tho leaves lie
smoothly upon the supporting pole below. Tho work is
oegun, shingle-fashion, at the bottom of the roof, and
each tier of leaves above overlaps a part of the tier be-
A well-made roof of palmetto thatch will last many
They are frequently to be seen upon our sea-
BUEKE’S WEEKLY.
and I have heard it sometimes when the
storm was too far off for any sound to
travel from it.”f
With all Tomkins’ anxiety, there was
nothing more to be done to the boat, and
though he left it reluctantly, as if oppress
ed with some presentiment of evil, he
said “All right!” and, with his compan
ion, ascended the bluff to look after things
at the camp.
. t There are some facts connected with storms which,
like other strange facts, have a mysterious aspect, simply
because we do not know how to account for them. One
of these is, that our severest storms oftentimes begin to
blow in a direction opposite to that in which the storm is
traveling. For instance, a storm which begins to be felt
first in the. West Indies, and day after day extends along
the Atlantic coast till it reaches Newfoundland, often
times begins with a gale from the northeast. Another
singular fact about them is, that although the wind of a
storm moves at the rate of eighty or one hundred miles
the hour, as tested by an anemometer, the storm itself may
travel at the rate of only fifteen or twenty miles the hour.
For instance, the storm that begins in the West Indies on
Monday, and reaches the coast of Georgia on Tuesday,
and of Connecticut on Wednesday, and spends itself at
Newfoundland on Thursday or Friday, evidently travels
at a rate necessary to make that distance in that time,
which is from fifteen to twenty-five miles an hour. These
facts have been accounted for by the theory that all
storms, so characterized, are immense whirls, of several
hundred miles diameter, in which the wind moves with
great rapidity around its centre, while the centre itself
moves with far less rapidity in its northeasterly direction.
The cause of Tomkins’ wonder, (viz: that a wave should
out-run the wind that raises it,) is to be accounted for by
knowing that ocean billows are estimated to move some
times at the rate of forty miles the hour, while the body
of the storm that causes it, moves only at the rate of
twenty or less. And Wheeler’s mysterious moanfrom the
sea is explained by the fact that sound travels much far
ther and more l'apidly through water than through air,
and thus a coming storm often sends its voice of warning
far ahead of its winds and waves.
♦<*♦
THE HAPPY FINDER.
PEORGE was in the high
school. One day after
he had learned his les
sons, he took out his Bi
ble and began to read it.
PJjfr His next neighbor leaned over and
asked “ if he was going to be a par
/|O\V son ?” He did so several days, and
the boys laughed and called him
“serious.” That is one way the devil
takes to hinder young men from thinking
of their souls. He sets their companions
to make fun of them, and he tries to make
them afraid of it. But it did not make
George afraid.
“I am serious,” he said. “ I feel 1 have
heaven to gain and hell to shun, and I
feel anxious about it.”
The boys looked sober at that, and nev
er said anything more.
George heard a sermon upon this sub
ject, “Choose ye this day whom ye will
serve,” and he saw several persons choos
ing. Stanley Miles chose ; Robert Sharon
chose; yes, and many others had chosen
to serve God. George thought he ought
to choose. He wanted to be a Christian ;
he wanted to find his Saviour.
“How do you feel, George? 1 asked his
minister, when he went to see him.
“I feel, sir,” said George, “as if seeking
after something I’ve lost, and I wanted
above all things to find it.”
George, in fact, was lost. That is the
way the Bible speaks of us. It tells us
we are lost; and it says the Lord Jesus
“ came to save that which was lost.”—
George was beginning to feel this, and he
was seeking that very Saviour; his soul
was reaching out after God. And as God
promises that every soul that seeks shall
find, George set himself in earnest about
finding what his soul needed—a Redeem
er from his sins, a helper to do right.
In reading the Bible, George found this
prayer of good David ;
“Mine eyes are unto thee, O God, the
Lord ; in thee is my trust; leave not my
soul destitute.”
And he made it his prayer. He liked
the words. It spoke for him, he said.
His minister prayed with him. His Sab
bath school teacher prayed with him, but
he did not find.
A holiday came. A party of boys were
going to the sea-side, and they came and
asked George to go with them. His aunt
told him to go. His mother said :
“Let George do as he thinks best,”
“I cannot go, mother, until I have
found God.”
So he stayed at home.
It was a beautiful morning. He got up
early and went into the barn. Falling
down on his knees, he cried:
“Mine eyes are unto thee, O God, the
Lord ; in thee is my trust; leave not my
soul destitute.”
When he drove the cows to pasture, he
knelt down on a rock, and there called
upon God. George felt that he could not
take no for answer. Like Jacob of old,
he wrestled with God for a blessing.
In the forenoon George went to walk
alone. When he came home, his mother
was in the door.
“ Mother,” he said, “ everything looks
so beautiful. I see God everywhere and
«/
in eveiything, mother.”
He said: “I know I have found Him,”
with a sweet, soft, happy look of one who
had found “ the pearl of great price.”
The next day he said:
“Oh, mother, I have got forgiveness,
and love, and comfort, and all that my
soul needed. If this is religion, why does
not everybody try for it ? —for they that
seek shall find, and I know it.”
What George then found he never lost.
More and more he finds it better than
rubies, and all the things that may be de
sired are not to be compared to it.
j&gg“Habit is a cable ; we weave a thread
every day, and at last cannot break it.
►
fi@“At what season did Eve eat the ap
ple ? Early in “ the fall.”
195