108 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



as when, overtaken by a storm, we seek some 

 shelter in the country, in perhaps a true wilder- 

 ness, an effective shelter wherein we are safe 

 from the discomfort or possible danger incident 

 to exposure, and, while unconcerned as to our- 

 selves, can contemplate Nature in her fretful or 

 positively angry mood, whether a gentle rain or 

 a driving storm prevails ; for there is almost as 

 much difference between a summer shower and 

 a cloud-burst as between bathing and drowning. 

 We are much too far from Nature when at home 

 during a rain. The world as seen from the 

 windows even of a country house is too much 

 like the moon seen through a telescope. Realiz- 

 ing that there are mountain-tops, we long to 

 stand upon them. Distance does not always 

 lend enchantment to the view. A far-off tree, 

 to come to tamer things, is a disturbing sight 

 until I have wandered through the wilderness 

 of its tangled branches. A hollow in any tree 

 frets me until I have seen the owl that lives 

 therein. I would knock at the doors of all my 

 neighbors that are not burdened with humanity, 

 and see if life has not features among them that 

 might by adoption lessen the load that I am 



