IS IT GOING TO RAIN? 89 



fact saw a process of disintegration and disorganiza- 

 tion going on, and my hope of rain was over for that 

 day. Vast spaces would be affected suddenly ; it was 

 like a stroke of paralysis ; motion was retarded, the 

 breeze died down, the thunder ceased, and the storm 

 was blighted on the very threshold of success. 



I suppose there is some compensation in a drought ; 

 Nature doubtless profits by it in some way. It is a 

 good time to thin out her garden and give the law of 

 the survival of the fittest a chance to come into play. 

 How the big trees and big plants do rob the little 

 ones ! there is not drink enough to go around and 

 ' the strongest will have what there is. It is a rest to 

 vegetation, too, a kind of torrid winter that is followed 

 by a fresh awakening. Every tree and plant learns 

 a lesson from it, learns to shoot its roots down deep 

 into the perennial supplies of moisture and life. 



But when the rain does come, the warm, sun- 

 distilled rain ; the far-traveling, vapor-born rain ; 

 the impartial, undiscriminating, unstinted rain ; equa- 

 ble, bounteous, myriad-eyed, searching out every 

 plant and every spear of grass, finding every hidden 

 thing that needs water, falling upon the just and 

 upon the unjust, sponging off every leaf of every 

 tree in the forest and every growth in the fields ; 

 music to the ear, a perfume to the smell, an enchant- 

 ment to the eye ; healing the earth, cleansing the air, 

 renewing the fountains ; honey to the bee, manna to 

 the herds, and life to all creatures what spectacle 

 so fills the heart ? " Rain, rain, dear Zeus, down 



