Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun

Excerpt: ...breath of the coming summer; and, looking back upon what we had been called upon to endure of storm and darkness, and bitter, numbing cold and wet, I rejoiced that summer was at hand, hoping that, before winter came again, there would be peace, and that our nightly buffetings by arctic winds, hail, snow, and icy seas would be at an end. As these thoughts passed through my mind, my gaze fixed itself contemplatively on the broad path of silver