Trees Flying Through the Sky and other Amazing Results of a Storm

On our voyage home from Ceylon we stopped at another island, a pretty strange place where cherries and apples grow under the ground, but carrots, cucumbers and even chickens grow in the trees.

As we approached, a storm was raging.  It had uprooted lots of huge trees, each one probably weighing ten tons or so. And now these trees blew about so high - at least five miles above the island - they looked like small birds' feathers floating in the sky.

The moment the storm let up, the trees dropped down, perfectly straight. Each tree dropped into its own hole, and instantly took root again. Only the biggest one did not. That tree happened to have a very honest old husband and wife in its branches; they had been picking cucumbers for their supper when the storm had come along.

Now the weight of this honest old couple overbalanced the trunk, so the tree came down sideways. And by a lucky accident, it fell smack on top of the island's chief, and killed him on the spot.

I say "lucky," because this chief had been the meanest, greediest man you ever saw, and used to take the natives food, feast himself fat, and let them nearly starve to death.

Imagine how they cheered to be rid of this tyrant! And they chose the honest old cucumber-picker husband to the their new chief.

We soon repaired the damages the storm had done to our ship, took leave of these good islanders, and sailed with fair wind for Holland, making but one stop, to Miss Susanna's Victorian Tea Parlor for an afternoon Grand Tea.