I was called upon to read aloud chapters in the Bible, and especially in the Book of Revelation, Knotty passages in the pamphlet I was also required to read from time to time.

But the oftener they were read, and the more closely they were examined, the greater was the puzzle, the more complete the mystification.
We reached Ocracoke in the evening, and the next morning had a fair wind over the bar and across Pamlico Sound.

This was the day on which the dreaded prediction was to be fulfilled.

The sun rose in a clear, unclouded sky on the morning of that day, and its beams flashed brilliantly and benignly, as with a gentle breeze from the northward we entered the mouth of the River Neuse.

There could not be a lovelier day.