wind. It had indeed
grown colder, although the restless ocean seemed to wear a calmer smile
than it had done in the early morning. Her ear, too, caught an unwonted
sound; it was the screaming of innumerable sea-birds; and as they drew
nearer, the loud flapping of their wings resounded through the island.
What could their strange appearance mean? While she thus questioned, a
sudden coughing told her that the keen blast which had swept across them
had left Claude weakened. She went to him, drew him within doors, and
wrapped him warmly in the thickest coverings they had; then she sat
anxiously by his side. The wind grew colder, and the screaming of birds
louder. Both feared some dire calamity--they knew not what. At last a
dull rumbling was heard, and then a roaring, a bellowing, a grinding, a
crashing, and the sudden falling of a mighty burden, as if a mountain
peak had toppled over on their island, which shook and vibrated as with
an earthquake.

The two held each other's hands and waited.

"Could it be a ship?" exclaimed Marguerite, suddenly.

"God help the ship that struck with such a fearful crash! But listen!"

The grinding, crashing sound continued to re-echo through the island,
while the warm sun gleamed brightly down on the two terrified
inhabitants of the hut; the cowering animals slunk trembling to their
holes; and the timorous birds plunged into the sea, or circled far out
over the peaceful waters.

Marguerite, seeing that sudden destruction had not come to them, nerved
herself, and went out to discover the cause of the unearthly din. As she
turned her eyes to the northern side of the island, she was almost
blinded by the resplendent glare. A huge iceberg, stretching far out to
sea, lay hard against the high cliffs, whose base was a hundred fathoms
beneath. A myriad birds circled above it, and flew over the island,
wondering at the green stretches and the spreading trees, and the
strange being who stood alone amidst it all.

The berg was like a series of mountain peaks, which scintillated in the
sunshine. Its green base, eaten and worn by the seas, sparkled like
emerald, and its innumerable caves and grottos, giving a variety of
light and shade, made it seem a veritable fairy realm. The base, worn
with many hollows, kept up a continuous roaring as the sea swept about
it, and the crashing fragments, which fell ever and anon with loud
resounding splash, added to the din. On the cliff lay piled a huge mass