IS IT GOING TO RAIN? 93 



them off the trees in the woods to windward of the 

 road. But this is only a guess ; may be they crept 

 out of the ground, or from under the wall near by, 

 and were out to wet their jackets. 



I have never yet heard of a frog coming down 

 chimney in a showe". ' ome circumstantial evidence 

 may be pretty conclusive, Thoreau says, as when 

 you find a trout in the milk, and if you find a frog or 

 toad behind the fire-board immediately after a shower, 

 you may well ask him to explain himself. 



When I was a boy I used to wonder if the clouds 

 were hollow and carried their water as in a cask, 

 because, had we not often heard of clouds bursting 

 and producing havoc and ruin beneath them ? The 

 hoops gave way, perhaps, or the head was pressed 

 out. Goethe says that when the barometer rises the 

 clouds are spun off from the top downward like a 

 distaff of flax ; but this is more truly the process 

 when it rains. When fair weather is in the ascend- 

 ant, the clouds are simply re-absorbed by the air ; 

 but, when it rains, they are spun off into something 

 more compact ; 't is like the threads that issue from 

 the mass of flax or roll of wool, only here there are 

 innumerable threads and the fingers that hold them 

 never tire. The great spinning-wheel, too, what a 

 humming it makes at times, and how the footsteps 

 of the invisible spinner resound through the cloud- 

 pillared chambers ! 



The clouds are thus literally spun up into water ; 

 and were they not constantly recruited from the at- 



