82 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



Electricity is, of course, an important agent in 

 storms. It is the great organizer and ring-master. 

 How a clap of thunder will shake down the rain ! 

 It gives the clouds a smart rap; it jostles the vapor 

 so that the particles fall together more quickly; it 

 makes the drops let go in double and treble ranks. 

 Nature likes to be helped in that way, likes to 

 have the water agitated when she is freezing it or 

 heating it, and the clouds smitten when she is com- 

 pressing them into rain. So does a shock of sur- 

 prise quicken the pulse in man, and in the crisis of 

 action help him to a decision. 



What a spur and impulse the summer shower is ! 

 How its coming quickens and hurries up the slow, 

 jogging country life ! The traveler along the dusty 

 road arouses from his reverie at the warning rumble 

 behind the hills; the children hasten from the field 

 or from the school; the farmer steps lively and 

 thinks fast. In the hay-field, at the first signal-gun 

 of the elements, what a commotion ! How the horse- 

 rake rattles, how the pitchforks fly, how the white 

 sleeves play and twinkle in the sun or against the 

 dark background of the coming storm! One man 

 does the work of two or three. It is a race with the 

 elements, and the hay-makers do not like to be 

 beaten. The rain that is life to the grass when 

 growing is poison to it after it becomes cured hay, 

 and it must be got under shelter, or put up into 

 snug cocks, if possible, before the storm overtakes it. 



The rains of winter are cold and odorless. One 

 prefers the snow, which warms and covers; but can 



