A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 31 



band (" them Germans," we call them), and the lifting 

 up of their agonizing Volkslieder, is a sure prognostic 

 of a " fall." His professed ability to smell the icebergs 

 in cold weather is probably some remnant of un- 

 digested natural history books ; but his self-support- 

 ing theory that wind causes thunder and thunder 

 wind ; his elastic definition of " frostes " from a 

 heavy August dew to a January blizzard his 

 formula as to the " sun and wind getting together ; " 

 his belief that the " breaking up of the springs " is 

 connected with storms at sea : all this is a marvel of 

 absurdity in a man with eyes, free of the open sky 

 from dawn to dark. In the Meteorological Depart- 

 ment these theories of the inner consciousness might 

 be looked for ; but in country people I can only 

 explain the thing by supposing it part of the law 

 whereby, rather than remain braced and keen to 

 watch the world accurately, and take every appearance 

 on its own merits, the lazy intellect declines upon 

 generalisation, formalised rules, and Laws of Nature. 

 The day following the wild sunset was blotted out 

 by driving rain that moved in curving pillars up the 

 valley all the morning. At noon the grey veil was 

 broken up, and great masses of cloud, thundery-white 

 at the crest and a deep blue-grey at the bellying base, 

 drew like an aerial fleet out of the south-west, falling 



