298 NA TURE'STUD Y RE VIEW 



clouds and rain confine me to near objects, the surface of the 

 earth and trees." 



Speaking of an April rain, he says, 



"Then the rain comes thicker and faster than before, thawing 

 the remaining frost in the ground and you turn your back to it 



full of serene contented thought ^more at home for being abroad, 



more comfortable for being wet, sinking at each step deep into the 

 thawing earth, and gladly breaking thru the gray rotting ice." 



"One would say that frost in the grotmd bred rain, if, 



indeed, its evaporations do not create it. Expect rain after rain 

 till the frost is completely out. The melted frost rising in the form 

 of vapor, returns perhaps, in rain to liberate its kind still im- 

 prisoned in the earth. 



In speaking of rain on a river, I think he gives a splendid de- 

 scription. "Rain again and we take shelter tmder a bridge and 

 again under a pine tree and again under our boat. It is worth 

 while to sit or lie thru a shower thus tmder a bridge or boat, be- 

 cause the rain is a much more interesting and remarkable phen- 

 omenon under these circtmistances. The surface of the stream 

 betrays every drop from the first to the last, and all the variations 

 of the storm, so much more expressive is the water than the com- 

 paratively brutish face of earth. We no doubt often walk 

 between drops of rain falling thinly, without knowing it, tho if on 

 water we should have been advertised of it. At last the whole 

 surface is nicked with rebounding drops as if the surface rose in 

 little cones to accompany or meet the drops, till it looks like the 

 back of some spiney fruit or animal, and yet the different colored 

 currents, light and dark are seen thru it all; andthen, when it clears 

 up, how gradually the surface of the water becomes more placid 

 and bright, the dimples growing fewer and finer till the pro- 

 longed reflection of trees are seen in it, and the water is lit up with 

 a joy which is in sympathy with our own, while earth is compar- 

 atively dead," 



Another quotation I like is this. 



"It rains so easy — has a genius for it and infinite capacity for it. 

 Many showers will not exhaust the moisture of April." 



This of coiirse is not all that Thoreau says on these subjects but 

 I have selected those I thought would best illustrate my point, 

 that Thoreau could find beauty and much interest in the duller 

 things of nature. There is much the he has to say about clouds 

 and their colors but I chose to confine myself to the duller forms 

 and I hope this mere gathering together of a great nature lover's 

 thoughts on such subjects may help someone find something of 

 interest in life's duller side. 



