The Dead Of Summer

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In the early-morning hour of 25 August, at ten minutes after midnight, on the south-east side of the island, the Russian steamship Vsadnik ran aground with a crew of one hundred and forty, of which three officers and twelve seamen drowned; all of the others were rescued. A hard easterly storm with rain.

AS NIGHT GAVE way to morning a solitary car was driving north on the main road that cut across the island of Fårö. The rain had stopped. Heavy clouds were still covering the sky in grey sheets. The birds had been singing since three a.m.; the light of dawn was spreading across the fields and meadows. Through the haze it was possible to glimpse juniper bushes, the crooked trunks of dwarf pines, and stone walls dividing the fields. There were also farm buildings made of Gotland limestone, seemingly scattered about haphazardly, along with an occasional windmill, though the sails had long since disappeared. Flocks of black sheep could be seen in the pastures. Indolently they got to their feet, one after another, and began grazing on the meagre grass offered by the mostly bare earth.

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