Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/198

 CHAPTER XVI

THINK that a fire would be a nice thing," Elspeth suggested. "Somehow, a good blaze always makes me feel as though I were defeating the wind and rain. They howl all the louder, out of very rage and jealousy."

Jim fetched in an armful of the Thomas J. Haskell and built a fire.

"It's a nice combination," Elspeth said; "whistling wind and crackling logs."

"Storm Motive from the Silver Shoal Symphony," murmured Jim, fanning the young flames; "shrieking wind, in the strings; counterpoint of snapping fire, in the percussion and woodwind; perpetual undertone of the sea worked out by the double-basses."

"I'm glad that I've seen a real storm here," Joan said. "Now I can imagine what it's like in winter."

"But this isn't a real storm at all," laughed Jim. "Why, it's a mere puff of the bellows