, simply
because the soil is prolific of farmers, and they cannot be kept down.
Like the poppies on the field of Waterloo, which renew the blood-red
strife each year, the Belgian peasant-farmer springs new-born from the
soil, which is the only mother he knows.

After two weeks in Holland, two in Belgium, and two in London, we were
ready to turn our faces toward home.

We took the train to Southampton, and a small side-wheel steamer carried
us outside Southampton waters, where we tossed about for thirty minutes
before the _Normania_ came to anchor. The wind was blowing half a gale
from the north, and we were glad to get under the lee of the great
vessel to board her.

The transfer was quickly made, and we were off for New York. The wind
gained strength as the day grew old, but while we were in the Solent the
bluff coast of Devon and Cornwall broke its force sufficiently to permit
us to be comfortable on the port side of the ship.

As night came on, great clouds rolled up from the northwest and the wind
increased. Darkness, as of Egypt, fell upon us before we passed the
Lizard, and the only things that showed above the raging waters were the
beacon lights, and these looked dim and far away. Occasionally a flash
of lightning threw the waters into relief, and then made the darkness
more impenetrable. As we steamed beyond the Lizard and the protecting
Cornish coast, the full force of the gale, from out the Irish Sea,
struck us. We were going nearly with it, and the good ship pitched and
reared like an angry horse, but did not roll much. Pitching is harder to
bear than rolling, and the decks were quickly vacated.

I turned into my stateroom soon after ten o'clock, and then happened a
thing which will hold a place in my memory so long as I have one. I did
not feel sleepy, but I was nervous, restless, and half sick. I lay on my
lounge for perhaps half an hour, and then felt impelled to go on deck. I
wrapped myself in a great waterproof ulster, pulled my storm cap over my
ears, and climbed the companionway. Two or three electric bulbs in
sheltered places on deck only served to make the darkness more intense.
I crawled forward of the ladies' cabin, and, supporting myself against
the donkey-engine, peered at the light above the crow's-nest and tried
to think that I could see the man on watch in the nest. I did see him
for an instant, when the next flash of lightning came, and also two
officers on the bridge; and I knew that C