348 CORN AND BEANS, ETC. 



loom vaguely. The flowers and shrubbery 

 bend to the moisture with the air of one who 

 stands and takes it. The steady, continuous 

 plash upon the roof slackens into a quiet patter- 

 ing of rain-drops. The west is lightening up ; 

 by and by a long line of blue is seen above Cro' 

 Nest. The setting sun shines out upon a puri- 

 fied and more beautiful landscape. Every leaf, 

 every spire of grass is brilliant with gems of 

 moisture. The cloud scenery has all changed. 

 The sun is setting in unclouded splendor. Not 

 the west but the east is now black with storm ; 

 but the rainbow, emblem of hope and God's 

 mercy, spans its blackness, and in the skies we 

 again have suggested to us a life, once clouded 

 and darkly threatened by evil, but now, through 

 penitence and reform, ending in peace and 

 beauty, God spanning the wrong of the past 

 with His rich and varied promises of forgive- 

 ness. At last the skies are clear again. Along 



