86 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



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. 

 Sometimes 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 vertebrae, — 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 cowlicks," 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. 



In the winter, we see the sun wading in snow. 

 The morning has perhaps been clear, but in the after- 

 noon a bank of gray filmy or cirrus cloud meets him 

 in the west, and he sinks deeper and deeper into it, 

 till, at his going down, his muffled beams are entirely 

 hidden. Then, on the morrow, not 



" Announced by all the trumpets of the sky," 

 but silent as night, the white legions are here. 



The old signs seldom fail, — a red and angry sun- 

 rise, or flushed clouds at evening. Many a hope of 

 rain have I seen dashed by a painted sky at sunset. 

 There is truth in the old couplet, too : — 



