tried to grow into something higher and better, God knows I have, but
I am afraid I am a house built on the sands after all. Don't be hard
on me, Mate, whatever comes remember I have tried.



HIROSHIMA, 3 hours later.


If you open this letter first, don't read the one that comes in the
same mail. I wrote it this afternoon, and I would give everything I
possess to get it back again. When I went out to mail it, I was
feeling so utterly desperate that I didn't care a rap for the storm or
anything else. I went on and on until I came to the sea-wall that
makes a big curve out into the sea. When I had gone as far as I
dared, I climbed up on an old stone lantern, and let the spray and the
rain beat on my face. The wind was whipping the waves into a perfect
fury, and pounding them against the wall at my feet. The thunder
rolled and roared, and great flashes of lightning ripped gashes in the
green and purple water. It was the most glorious sight I ever saw! I
felt that the wind, the waves, and the storm were all my friends and
that they were doing all my beating and screaming for me.

I clung to the lantern, with my clothes dripping and my hair streaming
about my face until the storm was over. And I don't think I was ever
so near to God in my life as when the sun came out suddenly from the
clouds and lit up that tempest-tossed sea into a perfect glory of
light and color I And the peace had come into my heart, Mate, and I
knew that I was going to take up my cross again and bear it bravely. I
was so glad, so thankful that I could scarcely keep my feet on the