The Poetry of Shelter. 119 



such as man only can produce, and finished 

 blades of stone wherewith man cut his food and 

 fashioned his clothing. We think of our own 

 people as men of a distant past, who came here 

 some two centuries ago, think of them as see- 

 ing this country when it was young and fresh ; 

 and we are quite lost in contemplating the 

 Indian who preceded our ancestors. His is 

 antiquity too great for our decipherment. But 

 now a more remote phase of human activities 

 is laid bare. It is sufficiently plain to those 

 willing to see, and a source of endless amuse- 

 ment when in connection therewith we witness 

 the antics of the overwise who have been pro- 

 claiming that such things could not be, who 

 overvalue theory and undervalue veracity. 



The rain is over. The steady hum of the 

 millions of drops has toned down to the drip- 

 ping of a few thousands. Every leaf holds a 

 few sparkling gems wherewith it is loath to 

 part, but the greedy earth demands every one, 

 and mischievous breezes scatter them over the 

 grass and into the bosom of the swelling tide. 

 Though birds carry no barometers about them, 

 they know when the change has come, and how 



