88 IS IT GOING TO RAIN? 



threateningly, then suddenly cower, their strength 

 and purpose ooze away ; they flattened out ; the hot, 

 parched breath of the earth smote them ; the dark, 

 heavy masses were re-resolved into thin vapor and 

 the sky came through where but a few moments be- 

 fore there had appeared to be deep behind deep of 

 water-logged clouds. Sometimes a cloud would pass 

 by, and one could see trailing beneath and behind it a 

 sheet of rain, like something let down that did not 

 quite touch the earth, the hot air vaporizing the 

 drops before they reached the ground. 



Two or three times the wind got in the south, and 

 those low, dun-colored clouds that are nothing but 

 harmless fog came hurrying up and covered the sky, 

 and city folk and women folk said the rain was at 

 last near. But the wise ones knew better. The 

 clouds had no backing, the clear sky was just behind 

 them ; they were only the night-cap of the south 

 wind which the sun burnt up before ten o'clock. 



Every storm has a foundation that is deeply and 

 surely laid, and those shallow surface clouds that 

 have no root in the depths of the sky deceive none 

 but the unwary. 



At other times, when the clouds were not re- 

 absorbed by the sky, and the rain seemed imminent, 

 they would suddenly curdle, and when the clouds 

 curdle the clerk of the weather has a sour stomach 

 and you need expect no good turn from him. Time 

 and again I saw them do that, saw their continuity 

 broken up, saw them separate into small masses in 



