XI 



In the Rain 



IT was raining. It had begun to rain the 

 afternoon before; it had rained all night, with 

 the drizzling, sozzling kind of rain that indi 

 cated persistence. It had rained all the morn 

 ing; it was obviously going to rain all day. 

 The hollow beside the stone hitching-post, 

 where the grocer s horse and the butcher s 

 horse and the fishman s horse had stamped, 

 all through the drought, was now a pool of 

 brown water, with the raindrops making 

 gooseflesh on it. There was another pond 

 under the front gate, and another under the 

 hammock; and the middle of the road, in the 

 horse rut, was a narrow brown brook. The 

 tiger lilies in the old stump were bending with 

 their load of wetness, the phlox in the garden 

 was weighed down till its white masses nearly 

 touched earth. Indoors, when the wind lulled 

 and the rain fell straighter, we could hear 

 the drops tick-tick-ticking on the bark of 



