One of the young men was harnessed to a sledge, containing saws, hatchets, a bamboo ladder that had formerly done duty as a staircase to the Nest, and everything else requisite for the contemplated project.
Jack had already started when Sophia called him back, and he hastily obeyed the summons.
"What are your Majesty's commands ?" "Oh, nothing particular, only should you meet my doll in company with your go-cart, be pleased to pay my respects to them." Saying this, she made a low curtsy, and turned her back upon him.
"Your Majesty's behests shall be obeyed," said Jack, and he ran off to rejoin the caravan.
The sad ravages of the tempest presented themselves as they proceeded; tall chestnuts lay stretched on the ground, and seemed, by their appearance, to have struggled hard with the storm.
"After all," inquired Frank, "what is the wind ?" "Wind is nothing more than air rushing in masses from one point to another." "And what causes this commotion in the elements ?" "The equilibrium of the atmosphere is disturbed by a variety of actions;--the diurnal motion of the sun, whose rays penetrate the air at various points; absorption and radiation, which varies according to the nature of the soil and the hour of the day; the inequality of the solar heat, according to seasons and latitude; the formation and condensation of vapor, that absorbs caloric in its formation, and disengages it when being resolved into liquid." "I never thought," remarked Willis, "that there were so many mysteries in a sou'-easter.

Does it blow?
is it on the starboard or larboard?
was all, in fact, that I cared about knowing." "In a word, the various circumstances that change the actual density of the air, making it more rarefied at one point than another, produce currents, the force and direction of which depend upon the relative position of hot and cold atmospheric beds.

Again, the winds acquire the temperature and characteristics of the regions they traverse." "That," observed Frank, "is like human beings; you may generally judge, by the language and manners of a man, the places that he is accustomed to frequent." "There are hot and cold winds, wet and dry; then there are the trade winds." "Ah, yes," cried Willis, "these are the winds to talk of, especially when sailing with them--that is, from east to west; but when your course is different, they are rather awkward affairs to get ahead of.
The way to catch them is to sail from Peru to the Philippines." "Or from Mexico to China." "Yes, either will do; then there is no necessity for tacking, you have only to rig your sails and smoke your pipe, or go to sleep; you may, in that way, run four thousand leagues in three months." "Stiff sailing that, Willis." "Yes, Master Ernest, but it does not come up to your yarn about the stars, you recollect, ever so many millions of miles in a second!" "The trade winds, I was going to observe," continued Becker, "that blow from the west coast of Africa, carry with them a stifling heat." "That might be expected," remarked Frank, "since they pass over the hot sands of the desert." "Well, can you tell me why the same wind is cooler on the east coast of America ?" "Because it has been refreshed on crossing the ocean that separates the two continents ?" "By taking a glass of grog on the way," suggested Willis.
"Yes; and so in Europe the north wind is cold because it carries, or rather consists of, air from the polar regions; and the same effect is produced by the south wind in the other hemisphere." "It is for a like reason," suggested Ernest, "that the south wind in Europe, and particularly the south-west wind, is humid, and generally brings rain, because it is charged with vapor from the Atlantic Ocean." "How is it, father, that the almanac makers can predict changes in the weather ?" "The almanac makers can only foresee one thing with absolute certainty, and that is, that there are always fools to believe what they say.

A few meteorological phenomena may be predicted with tolerable accuracy; but these are few in number, and range within very narrow limits." "Their predictions, nevertheless, sometimes turn out correct." "Yes, when they predict by chance a hard frost on a particular day in January, it is just possible the prediction may be verified; out of a multitude of such prognostications a few may be successful, but the greater part of them fail.

Their few successes, however, have the effect with weak minds of inspiring confidence, in defiance of the failures which they do not take the trouble to observe." "At what rate does the wind travel ?" "The speed of the wind is very variable; when it is scarcely felt, the velocity does not exceed a foot a second; but it is far otherwise in the cases of hurricanes and tornados, that sweep away trees and houses.
"And sink his Majesty's ships," observed Willis.
"In those cases the wind sometimes reaches the velocity of forty-five yards in a second, or about forty leagues in an hour." "Therefore," remarked Jack, "the wind is a blessing that could very well be dispensed with." "Your conclusions, Jack, do not always do credit to your understanding.