ll night it raged over land and water, increasing to a
gale as the pale dawn broke, lashing the lake into a sheet of foam, and
growing colder and colder as the flying watery clouds obscured the sun
and the dismal day waxed and waned. With our faces pressed against the
window-panes we watched the fresh-water sea in its fury. Out in the
offing several vessels were scudding under bare poles, and a steamer
trying to make the harbor was blown over almost horizontally in the
water before she reached the piers. Darkness fell and the wind howled
over the city, changing to the north and bringing a storm of sleet and
snow in its train, so that the ground was white when daylight broke, and
the air so thick with the stinging hail that we could not see the lake.
Anxiously we waited, but in vain: our thoughts were with the sailors out
on the raging waters. Not until twilight did the atmosphere grow clear;
and as an angry gleam of sunshine shot from under the heavy bank of
clouds, we saw two schooners, one near the shore, the other out on the
horizon, driving before the gale.

"Are they in danger, Uncle John?" we asked.

"Yes, I should say so, although I am no sailor."

"Why do not the tugs go out to help them?"

"Each one for himself, my two little nieces. The tugs could do nothing
in such a sea."

Another night came, and after its long hours had passed the sky grew
clearer and the gale abated: there was still a high wind and the dark
lake looked threatening, but the worst was over, at least for the time.
One of the schooners had disappeared, but the other was coming in under
a rag of a sail, plunging and almost unmanageable. As she neared the
shore a tug ventured out, and succeeded in reaching her safely, but
close to the end of the pier a furious gust broke the fastenings and
threw the vessel up on the stone foundation of an old wharf at the
western side of the entrance, where she pounded to pieces in a few
moments. The crew made desperate efforts to escape, and we could see
their black forms clinging to the spars and the logs of the wharf
between the waves. All possible aid was given, and all but one were
saved: he, poor fellow! was washed out to sea and lost.

"A cruel lake!" exclaimed Ada. "Who would suppose that such a
comparatively small body of water could rival the great ocean in
danger?"

"In a storm navigation is more dangerous on our Western lakes than on
the ocean," said Uncle John: "there is not space enough for