Where was my great commerce that so lately had made these glistening expanses populous and beautiful with its white-winged flocks?
Vanished, every one! Not a sail, from verge to verge, not a smoke-bank--just a dead and empty solitude, in place of all that brisk and breezy life.
I went swiftly back, saying not a word to anybody.

I told Sandy this ghastly news.

We could imagine no explanation that would begin to explain.

Had there been an invasion?
an earthquake?
a pestilence?
Had the nation been swept out of existence?
But guessing was profitless.

I must go--at once.