THE REPENTANCE OF MAY 193 



You can get ice from evaporation, never, it is 

 true, without the temperature sinks to freezing-point, 

 except by a very local chilling. Even a frozen bird- 

 saucer does not prove that the flower-bed next to 

 it has been frozen, any more than ice-pudding for 

 dinner proves that the mutton was cold. An inter- 

 ested observer of these May frosts has written us that 

 they attacked the ground only, not rising more than 

 a foot above it. He admits that the early potatoes 

 were ruined, and we can give the gardener his goose- 

 berries and the sweet-peas and such other tender 

 losses as he imputes to the discredit of his ancient 

 enemy, the early frost. It has not, however, been a 

 phenomenal May for night frosts, and the damage we 

 have suffered, if damage it be, must be put down 

 more to the ungenial character of the days. 



Our opinion, which we dare not breathe to the 

 gardener, is that we have been suffering from drought. 

 Drought in the midst of abundant rain. Thus did 

 the Ancient Mariner suffer from thirst in the midst of 

 the sea. There has been " water, water everywhere, 

 but not a drop to drink." It has been lying, as it 

 lies in a mild winter, in barren soil, a soil with 

 sleeping microbes or drowned microbes, and the 

 plants must sleep till the microbes wake up and 

 triturate the water for their use. Then the wind, 

 which was ever with us, has swept continually over 

 the soil, carrying away the top moisture, not by its 

 warmth, but by its velocity. It dried the surface- 

 film into a cake that set round the tiny necks of the 

 plants, choking them, almost cutting their throats in 

 a sheet of midday " ice," far more deadly than the 

 more or less mythical ice of the morning frosts. If 

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