A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



fore eleven. Nine times in ten it will turn 

 out thus. The best time for it to begin to 

 rain or snow, if it wants to hold out, is 

 about mid-forenoon. The great storms usu- 

 ally begin at this time. On all occasions 

 the weather is very sure to declare itself 

 before eleven o'clock. If you are going on 

 a picnic, or are going to start on a journey, 

 and the morning is unsettled, wait till ten 

 and one half o'clock, and you shall know 

 what the remainder of the day will be. 

 Midday clouds and afternoon clouds, except 

 in the season of thunderstorms, are usually 

 harmless idlers and vagabonds. But more 

 to be relied on than any obvious sign is 

 that subtle perception of the condition of 

 the weather which a man has who spends 

 much of his time in the open air. He can 

 hardly tell how he knows it is going to rain ; 

 he hits the fact as an Indian does the mark 

 with his arrow, without calculating and by 

 a kind of sure instinct. As you read a 

 man's purpose in his face, so you learn to 

 read the purpose of the weather in the face 

 of the day. 



In observing the weather, however, as in 

 the diagnosis of disease, the diathesis is all- 

 important. All signs fail in a drought, be- 



i88 



