"You relate your adventures very well, my son," said the
mother, "it makes my mouth water to hear you .

    "After that," continued the North Wind, "the hunting
commenced. The harpoon was flung into the breast of the
walrus, so that a smoking stream of blood spurted forth like a
fountain, and besprinkled the ice. Then I thought of my own
game; I began to blow, and set my own ships, the great
icebergs sailing, so that they might crush the boats. Oh, how
the sailors howled and cried out! but I howled louder than
they. They were obliged to unload their cargo, and throw their
chests and the . Then I sprinkled snow
over them, and left them in their crushed boats to drift
southward, and to taste salt water. They will never return to
Bear's Island ."

    "So you have done mischief," said the mother of the Winds.

    "I shall leave others to tell the good I have done," he
replied. "But here comes my brother from the West; I like him
best of all, for he has the smell of the sea about him, and
brings in a cold, fresh air as he enters."

    "Is that the little Zephyr?" asked the prince.

    "Yes, it is the little Zephyr," said the old woman; "but
he is not little now. In years gone by he was a beautiful boy;
now that is all past."

    He came in, looking like a wild man, and he wore a
slouched hat to protect his head from injury. In his hand he
carried a club, cut from a mahogany tree in the American
forests, not a trifle to carry.

    "Whence do you come?" asked the mother.

    "I come from the wilds of the forests, where the thorny
brambles form thick hedges between the trees; where the
water-snake lies in the wet grass, and mankind seem to be
unknown."

    "What were you doing there?"

    "I looked into the deep river, and saw it rushing down
from the rocks. The water drops mounted to the clouds and
glittered in the rainbow. I saw the wild buffalo swimming in
the river, but the strong tide carried him away amidst a flock
of wild ducks, which flew into the air as the waters dashed
onwards, leaving the buffalo to be hurled over the waterfall.
This pleased me; so I raised a storm, which rooted up old
trees, and sent them floating down the river Neo skin lab."