The Way of the Wind

cyclones, or heard of rumors of those that had just passed through, or were in

ch had an opposite effect. Love blinded, he failed to see that the nervous la

her dugout, bidding her sweetheart good night. She opened the door, he stepped outside, and a cyclone happening t

, hair mattresses, remnants of chimneys, old iron, bones, rags, rice,

me said, for all she knew he might still be in the land of the living. Possibly the cyclone had only

ed and waited for the wild winds to bring h

is part of the country," the old gray-haired man at th

the socks, the story teller had said, so that when they found the farmer flattened against a barn door as if he had been paste

in another cyclone, he said. Hogs had been cut

ons at work as

n a big closet in a distant wing of the house, far from the profane stare of strange eyes. She made discreet pilgrimages to look at thos

fortunately-how could she know that

nado, rushing, roaring, shrieking like mad, and grasping that wing of the house,

iguring water, her long suede gloves lay in a ditch and her white satin wedding slippers, alas, hung by their tiny heels at the top of a tr

l new wedding finery could be prepared, b

ay, the affections of the girl's sweetheart had wa

ed out trees in rows and clumps, taking tree

double in their extreme youth, leaving them to grow that way

have nothing to do with their devilments

n by the roots, turned them upside down and stuck the

man at the corner grocery had asked. "T

e and who was therefore learned, though he had been persuaded by some Wise m

screeching and screaming, but doing not so very much damage as it might do, just

t corner of this cyclone and there you are! It generates

; for what had they to do with his ranch and

to the forks of two river

had bewitched the spot with her incantations, defying th

eething kettles, or stalked abroad in the darkness, or chanted dirges to the slap and pat of the gri

al shriek of the wind. Very tenderly he whispered the reassurance and promise of protection against every blast that blew, thus soothing her

only bending over the tubs early in the morning for fear such bending might hurt her, but hanging out the clothes on the

bor was over, and ironed them. He also did the simple cooking in

e hushed the noise of th

the door of their dugout, peering after the east-bound train, trailing so far a

is care was wasted. In spite of whi

for themselves and their children, had found cont

this exquisite Southern creature, charming, delicate,

the hut into a palace for his Queen; and so he would, when

luctant rain from the clouds, sowing seed and raising crops sometimes, to their surprise and the amazement of

ed approach in size to a city on the ed

of it, had come along and

had carried it off as if it had been a hen coop and set it down somewhere in Texas, a state that

growing discourag

he furious prairie fires that were so hard to put out, smothering the innocent occupants of the dugouts in their sleep and burning their grain. Not to gaze wild-eyed through

ld come

h

s, the Big Arkansas and the Little Arkansas, the little river that had real water trickling along its shallow bed year in and year out, and

o drown the crops that had been spared by the c

of the glory of the Magic City, which he called after the old wit

freeze the marrow of his bones and the blood in his veins, or cut h

partly to comfort her, he offered every possible apology for her unbe

shared his belief in the Magic City, when she held it warmly in her arms, that little baby, his and hers, th