NURSLINGS OF THE SKY 



hellebore, and beat down the mimulus be- 

 side the brook. You shelter on the lee of 

 some strong pine with shut-winged butter- 

 flies and merry, fiddling creatures of the 

 wood. Runnels of rain water from the 

 glacier-slips swirl through the pine needles 

 into rivulets ; the streams froth and rise in 

 their banks. The sky is white with cloud ; 

 the sky is gray with rain ; the sky is clear. 

 The summer showers leave no wake. 



Such as these follow each other day by 

 day for weeks in August weather. Some- 

 times they chill suddenly into wet snow 

 that packs about the lake gardens clear to 

 the blossom frills, and melts away harm- 

 lessly. Sometimes one has the good for- 

 tune from a heather -grown headland to 

 watch a rain -cloud forming in mid-air. 

 Out over meadow or lake region begins a 

 little darkling of the sky, no cloud, no 

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