CHAPTER XIV. 



SKETCHES FROM NATURE. 

 I. 



NATURE'S WEATHER PROPHETS. 



NATURE'S barometers are the only ones of which 

 most country-folk have any knowledge. These 

 they may consult at all times, and they know 

 them by heart. Almost all field-workers are 

 " weather wise," and their conversation on this 

 head has no town conventionalism about it. The 

 farmer has been so beaten about by wind and 

 weather that he himself is scarcely sensible to 

 changing atmospheric conditions ; but that does 

 not prevent his observing its influence on the 

 things about him. Before rain his dogs grow 

 sleepy and dull, the cat constantly licks herself; 

 geese gaggle in the pond, fowls and pigeons go 

 early to roost, and the farm horses grow restless. 

 Abroad, the ants are all hurry and scurry, 

 rushing hither and thither ; spiders crowd on the 

 wall ; toads emerge from their holes ; and the 



