The small craft weathered the storm surprisingly well. Harsh as the storm was, it did not discourage the voyagers in the little Phenonecian craft coming home after a long voyage from the land later to be known as America. Each voyage had taken three months. Added to the two months they had spent in America — made it three-fourths of a year since they had left their home on the eastern shore of the Mediteranian Sea. They were but a day\u2019s voyage from Pheonecia when the storm started; and, although it was carrying them eastward, Ramyn, the captain in charge, estimated that it would still be nearly two days before they could safely land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They had been the first craft sent out for the purpose of reaching the legendary land past the East Teeth which formed the eatsren mouth of the Mediteranian. They had spied out the new land for possible colonization, and had collected various representatives of the fauna, including some brightly-plumed birds (killed for easy transport); an opossum (dead when found); a pair of monkeys (which they named Kip and Kep) with extremely long, mobile tails (Kep the female has died on the return voyage); and the skin and head of a very long snake (the rest they had eaten).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fruits they had collected had also been eaten, but the gold they had discovered was still in its pouch at Ramyn\u2019s side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly, the boat was unexpectedly wrenched apart. Ramyn showed nothing but surprise as he went down beneath the strom\u2019s crashing waves. His last thoughts were him wondering how his extremely sturdy craft could have done in by this average-strength storm. The only survivor of the trip turned out to be Kip, the monkey, who scrambled for shore and immediately began searching for food when the wreckage he had managed to cling to reached land two days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kip had no way of knowing that the downfall of Ramyn\u2019s boat was not due to some oversight in construction, or even a particularly bad strom, but was brought about by another example of a fauna once limited to America — the termite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wrote this while young — probably after learning that termites originated in America.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The small craft weathered the storm surprisingly well. Harsh as the storm was, it did not discourage the voyagers in the little Phenonecian craft coming home after a long voyage from the land later to be known as America. Each voyage had taken three months. Added to the two months they had spent in America … <\/p>\n