252 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



XL VIII. 



Water, water, everywhere, 

 Nor any drop to drink. 



IP we could only say so much as that, 

 we should feel fairly well pleased. We 

 remember sympathetically the little girl in 

 the story, who, when she heard that some 

 neighbours had no bread to eat, expressed 

 her wonder that they did not then eat cake, 

 and we should try to get along bravely with 

 some other beverage. But, alas ! it is not 

 &quot; water, water everywhere.&quot; A month ago 

 I recorded a refreshing rain, continuing for 

 several hours, and I congratulated myself 

 that there was scarcely a physical possibility 

 that we should have it so dry again before 

 the time of frost. But since then the drought 

 has once more settled down upon us, and we 

 have not had enough of a shower to lay the 

 dust. In the morning a fog covers the val 

 ley, and during the day a canopy of smoke 

 and haze covers the heavens, through which 

 the sun sometimes glows like a ball of red- 



