y mess of the husband."

VI

I was feeling a trifle dull and heavy one afternoon, and after several
vain efforts to do good work, decided that a vigorous tramp would set my
blood to flowing, and the wheels of my thinking mill to revolving. So
out I started toward the lake, as usual. There had been a storm off the
Michigan shore, and we were just beginning to get evidence of it, in the
big waves that were tumbling on the beach, I like the lake in this
mood--in any mood, indeed, but especially when it is rough and wild.

After quite a brisk tramp along, or near the beach, I turned back; but
before going home again, I wished to come in closer contact with the
tumultuous waters. At risk of being wet by the spray, which the waves
were tossing on high, much as an excited horse tosses the foam from his
chafing mouth, I climbed around the little bathing house, set on the
shore end of the pier, and then boldly walked out, and took my seat in
the midst of the tumult.

The passion of the lake was magnificent; far out--as far as eye could
stretch--there were oncoming waves; the clan was gathering, and all in
battle array. What an overwhelming charge they made! Surely no one could
resist that onslaught. There was no deliberation, as was usual with a
moderately heavy sea; no calm, inevitable heaving of the water; no
steady rising, ever higher and higher, until it crested, curved, and
fell with a boom. There was nothing of this to-day; no preparation;
everything was ready; the warriors, armed and mounted, were already
making the attack.

For a time I gloried in it all; even the anger of the waves was more
admirable than terrific in my sight. It seemed as though they
interpreted my boldness as defiance, and accepted the challenge. From
near, from far, they were coming, and all upon me, or if that is taking
too much to myself, they were making their attack upon the shore,
meaning to claim it for their own, and incidentally to sweep me, a poor,
insignificant atom, from their sight.

By and by I found myself oppressed with the desolation of the scene. As
the day waned, and the chill that foreshadows night fell upon me, or
rather rose upon me, from the cold waters, I began to feel lonely and
unprotected. The waves looked so hungry, so cruel; they reached out and
up toward me; they encircled with the inevitable, as with a relentless
fate. I began to be afraid of them, and I rose to go back to