SOME WEATHER LORE 79 



This is a verse full of ripe experience, and one of 

 the old-fashioned maxims in which we can have 

 the fullest confidence, finding that practically there 

 is always truth in the old adage: 



" A rainbow in the morning 

 Is the shepherd's warning, 

 But a rainbow at night 

 Is the shepherd's delight." 



This weather portent is, perhaps, more a sign for 

 shepherds and travellers, than for gardeners and 

 other ordinary folk who work by day, and can hardly 

 be expected to watch for rainbows by night, to the 

 detriment of their night's rest, and likewise their 

 morning temper. 



When the " distant hills look near " it is an in- 

 fallible sign of rain, and many times one hears the 

 saying in the country, " Such a place is too clear 

 to-day," or, " One can see such a land much too 

 well," and this means near rain. Just before rain it 

 can often be observed that toads wall walk out across 

 the road, and frogs will change colour before a storm, 

 losing their bright green or yellow, and turning to 

 a dull and dirty brown. 



There is a saying that " the new moon with the 

 old moon in her lap comes before rain." And of 

 the bur or halo to be seen at times round the moon: 

 " Near bur, far rain." 



A rather curious countryside superstition is heard 

 sometimes concerning the weather on February 2. 



" On Candlemas Day if the sun shines clear, 



The Shepherd had rather see his wife on the bier." 



" March dry, good rye, 

 April wet, good wheat." 



