to shelter themselves from it; children died by the roadside on their way home from school; farmers perished in the fields before they could reach their homes; a woman, stepping outside her front door to watch for her husband, became so numbed that she had no sense or power to turn back.

The most of those who perished in these long days and nights in which the hurricane roared seem to have been first suffocated and then quickly frozen. They had torn open their clothing to relieve their swollen throats.

This great storm lasted sixty hours, accompanied by such roaring and tumult that the human voice could hardly make itself heard within a few feet.

There is a great deal of mystery in the making of snow and hail in the chambers of upper air.

Snowflakes are delicate ice needles crystallized in six-pointed stars. Moisture enough to make a rainfall of one inch may have so much air entangled with it as to fall in snow to the depth of ten inches.

Hailstones are even less understood. It seems as if a single drop of water must first have frozen, and that then ice particles gathered around it as it was driven through the air.

Adapted from The Ocean of Air.

XL. WIND STORIES

Up the dale and down the bourne,
O'er the meadow swift we fly;

Now we sing and now we mourn,
Now we whistle, now we sigh.

GEORGE DARLEY.

The wind has a language I would I could learn ;
Sometimes 't is soothing, and sometimes 't is stern,
Sometimes it comes like a low swift song,
And all things grow calm as the strain floats along.

HONE.

Loud wind, strong wind, sweeping o'er the mountains, Fresh wind, free wind, blowing from the sea, Pour forth thy vials like streams from airy fountains, Draughts of life to me.

MISS MULOCK.

Where hast thou wandered, gentle gale, to find

The perfumes thou dost bring?

By brooks that through the winding meadows wind,

Or brink of rushy spring?

Or woodside, where, in little companies,

The early wild flowers rise?

BRYANT.

XLI. DUST TRAVELERS

THIS cannot be a pleasant story. Let us take it as we do a medicine and get its lesson.

Children are asked to dust a room sometimes, and they think it a waste of time. Where do all the dust motes come from?" they ask.

The answer is "From everywhere and everything." Wear and tear, rain and frost, growth and decay, all help to bring them.

Is there a good side to the story?

Yes. Dust floating high in the air helps to hold the mists and clouds. Sunset colors are made brighter, because drops around them divide the light. Fine particles in the air soften the glaring sunlight; even our clear blue sky owes something to them.

If nothing wore away, there would be no need of anything new; would that suit us?

When you have gathered a hundred atoms from mantel or table listen to the stories some of them may tell. Here is a sample:

I came from a shabby shoe; I was brushed from your forehead; I am a bit from the petal of a faded

flower; I am soot from the lamp; I came from Florida on an orange. The wind brought me in from the scale on a butterfly's wing, and by my side was a bit of stone from a meteor which fell from far up in the sky; it cannot be expected to know the language you use on earth and tell its story. I came from a refuse pile in your back yard; it should have been taken away long ago.

Some dust particles seen through a microscope told that they had come a thousand miles to the place where they were found.

It will always be true that motes will dance in the sunbeams. It will be well if there are no worse ones than these.

What must we do about it?

Only this, use plenty of soap and water, make friends of brush and broom, and try to keep ourselves so lusty and healthy that a million of these foes will do us no harm.

XLII. THE FACE OF THE SKY

THINGS of the earth get our attention because they are so close to us. There are things of the sky, however, that are quite as worthy of it. How well do you know the face of the sky as you see it every clear evening? Would you know if a new sky were to take its place, or if half the stars should change their places?

Very long ago people used to fancy the sky as a great hollow globe in which the stars were set like jewels in a crown. Seeing that the stars moved from evening to evening they thought the whole sky moved, carrying the stars with it. We are taught now that each star is a great fiery sun, and that it is only because stars are so distant that they seem so still.

If you will take the trouble, you can trace for yourselves the courses of some of the stars that are always in the part of the heavens that we see. Fix a time in the evening when you will look for special stars or a group of stars; then look at the same hour on every clear evening to see how their positions have changed. Cutting a great paper circle and marking the locations upon it will be a help.