IS IT GOING TO KAIN ? • 67 



will twice and thrice, and a dozen times. In a wet 

 time it rains to-day because it rained yesterday, and 

 will rain to-morrow because it rained to-day. Are 

 %e crops in any part of the country drowning? 

 Ihey shall continue to drown. Are they burning 

 apl They shall continue to burn. The elements 

 j;et in a rut and can't get out without a shock. I 

 know a farmer who, in a dry time, when the clouds 

 gather and look threatening, gets out his watering- 

 pot at once, because, he says, "it won't rain, and 

 'tis an excellent time to apply the water." Of 

 course, there comes a time when the farmer is wrong, 

 but he is right four times out of five. 



But I am not going to abuse the weather; rather 

 to praise it, and make some amends for the many 

 ill-natured things I have said, within hearing of the 

 clouds, when I have been caught in the rain or been 

 parched and withered by the drought. 



When Mr. Fields's "Village Dogmatist" was asked 

 what caused the rain, or the fog, he leaned upon 

 his cane and answered, with an air of profound wis- 

 dom, that "when the atmosphere and hemisphere 

 come together it causes the earth to sweat, and 

 thereby produces the rain," — or the fog, as the 

 case may be. The explanation is a little vague, as 

 his biographer suggests, but it is picturesque, and 

 there can be little doubt that two somethings do 

 come in contact that produce a sweating when it 

 rams or is foggy. 'Move than that, the pliilosophy 

 is simple and comprehensive, which Goethe said was 

 the main matter in such things. Goethe's explana- 



