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 garden paths are every- 

 where covered with slugs and snails. When the 

 chaffinch says " weet, weet," it is an infallible sign of 

 rain. As the rain draws nearer peacocks cry and 

 frogs croak clamorously from the ditches. These 

 are signs which almost everyone has heard who 



lives in the country; though one of the surest ways 



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