i82 SPORT INDEED 



wisdom in the stare of an owl, the merriment in his 

 song is rather too funereal to tickle the ears of 

 Hilarity. 



There are some who believe the owl to be " well- 

 heeled " with weather- wisdom ; a second edition of 

 Old Probs in feather binding. They say that when 

 he chooses a tree by the edge of a stream or lake from 

 which to shriek his melancholy forecast, there is rain 

 coming and plenty of it. But when he moves his 

 music stand away from the water and fixes it upon 

 the ridges, fair weather is close at hand. I must say 

 that my own experience can partially endorse him as 

 a weather prophet. During my vigil he perched him- 

 self upon a tree near the water's edge and near 

 enough to my watching place to give my ears the full 

 benefit of his melody. His prophecy came true, for it 

 was quickly followed by a hard rain accompanied 

 with a hurricane-like wind. 



The owl, however, was not the only forecaster of 

 the storm. Before it broke, and in the midst of a 

 dead calm, I heard the fall of a tree some two hun- 

 dred yards away. "Do you hear that?" said the 

 guide. " There's going to be heavy weather. When- 

 ever a tree falls in a calm like this, there's a big storm 

 coming, sure." 



Now, I knew that Nature sometimes foreruns her 

 storms with a calm, but did not know that she was in 

 the habit of mixing it up with the fall of an old tree. 



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