out of the force of the blast.

There they sat down, all huddled together; and there the children saw
more than they had been promised.

The tempest had not yet reached Skye; and they could see, in the
intervals of rolling clouds, mountain peaks glittering with snow.

"There is the snow!" said the widow. "And see the vapours!--the
tumbling, rolling vapours that we call steam-clouds! Look how the
lightning flash darts out of them! and how the sea seems swelling and
boiling up to meet the vapours! A little way from the land, the wind
catches the spray and carries it up and away. If the wind was now from
the east, as it will be in spring, that spray would wash over us, and
drench us to the skin in a minute."

"What, up here?"

"Oh, yes, and higher still. There! Adam felt some then." And well he
might. The sea was now wrought into such tumult that its waves rolled
in upon the rocks with tremendous force, causing the caverns to resound
with the thundering shock, and the very summit of the precipices to
vibrate. Every projection sent up columns of spray, the sprinklings of
which reached the heights, bedewing the window of the cottage, and
sending in the party under the gable.

"There now," said the widow, when she had fed her fire, and sat down,
"we have seen a fine sight to-day; and there will be more to-morrow."

"Shall we see it to-morrow?"

"Oh, yes; if you like to come to me to-morrow, I think I can promise to
show you the shore all black with weed thrown up by the storm, and,
perhaps we may get some wood. These storms often cast up wood,
sometimes even thick logs. We must not touch the logs; they belong to
Sir Alexander Macdonald, but we may take the smaller pieces, those of us
who can get down before other people have taken them away. If the
minister is not aware of this, we must tell him, and the weeds will be
good to manure his kail-bed, if he can find nothing better."

"Will you go to-morrow and pick up some wood?"

"If I can get down alone; but I cannot climb up and down as I used to
do. I will show you something prettier than wood or weed that I picked
up, after one of these storms, when I was younger." And she took out of
her chest three shells, one very large and handsome, which had been cast
upon the western shore some years before. Adam thought this so
beautiful that he begged to have it; but the widow could not give it
away. She told him she must keep it for a particular reason; bu