100 IS IT GOING TO RAIN? 



Then, the weather-wise know there are two kinds 

 of clouds, rain clouds and wind clouds, and that the 

 latter are always the most portentous. In summer, 

 they are black as night ; they look as if they would 

 blot out the very earth. They raise a great dust, 

 and set things flying and slamming for a moment, 

 and that is all. They are the veritable wind-bags of 

 -ZEolus. There is something in the look of rain 

 clouds that is unmistakable, a firm, gray, tightly 

 woven look that makes you remember your umbrella. 

 Not too high, nor too low, not black, nor blue, but 

 the form and hue of wet, unbleached linen. You see 

 the river water in them ; they are heavy laden, and 

 move slow. Sometimes they develop what are called 

 " mares' tails," small cloud-forms here and there 

 against a heavy background, that look like the stroke 

 of a brush, or the streaming tail of a charger. Some- 

 times a few under-clouds will be combed and groomed 

 by the winds or other meteoric agencies at work, as 

 if for a race. I have seen coming storms develop 

 well-defined vertebra, a long backbone of cloud, 

 with the articulations and processes clearly marked. 

 Any of these forms, changing, growing, denote rain, 

 because they show unusual agencies at work. The 

 storm is brewing and fermenting. " See those cow- 

 licks," said an old farmer, pointing to certain patches 

 on the clouds ; " they mean rain." Another time, 

 he said the clouds were " making bag," had growing 

 udders, and that it would rain before night, as it did. 

 This reminded me that the Orientals speak of the 

 clouds as cows which the winds herd and milk. 



