Some readers may realize that this story, first published in 1956, has been overtaken by events. In 1965, astronomers discovered that Mercury does not keep one side always to the Sun, but has a period...
The rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had.
The whole world might know you and acclaim you, but someone in the past, forever unreachable, forever unknowing, spoils it all.