124 Next to the Ground 



The mist drops are clear as dew, and heavier 

 than rain. They distil from the woolly white- 

 ness, gathering all along boughs and branches. 

 Sometimes just after sunrise a quick wind rolls 

 away the white wool, and then you see the 

 trees diamonded all over, flashing back the low 

 red shining. It is a royal spectacle, especially 

 if you chance to look at the sun through the 

 bediamonded boughs, and thus have the red 

 shining turned into a flood of rainbows. The 

 big drops act as prisms to bring out the pri- 

 mary colors. 



It took a warm stealing south wind thus 

 to roll back the mists. A cold westerly or 

 northerly breeze blew them up into the sky, 

 and shaped them into flying rain-scud. If the 

 winds did the work quick enough there was 

 a shower, and a morning rainbow in the sky. 

 Of rainbows at morning all good husbandmen, 

 especially shepherds, take warning, since they 

 are infallible signs of foul weather. Falling 

 weather, say the country folk. Scientific ones 

 might say almost the same, since it is the fall- 

 ing barometer which gives notice of coming 

 disturbances. 



When Joe went out bird-hunting he had 

 no need of either rainbows or barometer to tell 

 him what weather impended. Birds for hunt- 

 ing in Tennessee are quail, there called par- 

 tridge, as the true partridge is known as pheas- 



