It was piling in from the
vast Barrens to the north and east and for a time it was
accompanied by a stillness that was oppressive. He could no longer
distinguish a movement in the tops of the cedars and banskian pine
beyond the corral. In the corral itself he caught now and then the
shadowy, flitting movement of the wolves. He did not hear Celie
when she came out of her room. So intently was he straining his
eyes to penetrate the thickening pall of gloom that he was
unconscious of her presence until she stood close at his side.
There was something in the awesome darkening of the world that
brought them closer in that moment, and without speaking Philip
found her hand and held it in his own. They heard then a low
whispering sound--a sound that came creeping up out of the end of
the world like a living thing; a whisper so vast that, after a
little, it seemed to fill the universe, growing louder and louder
until it was no longer a whisper but a moaning, shrieking wail. It
was appalling as the first blast of it swept over the cabin.
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