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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