THE NATURAL MAN 257 



It was astonishing how often he was right though, 

 perhaps, we forgot to tell against him the times he 

 was wrong. But the moon is out of vogue. We may 

 be allowed to foretell wet when we see a halo round 

 her, because the cloud that takes this form is often a 

 cloud of rain. We must not, however, attach any im- 

 portance to the age of the moon, to what quarter she 

 chances to be in ; this has nothing to do, so far as is 

 known, with the weather of the earth. 



Besides, our weather wisdom to-day is ready-made. 

 We buy it as we buy any useful, everyday commodity. 

 There is no longer excuse for unscientific observation. 

 The new plan has great advantages. True, it is not 

 always so positive as the method of the old country- 

 man. It never foretells forty days of wet or of shine 

 as he would though perhaps that foretelling should 

 come under the head of folk-lore rather than rule of 

 thumb wisdom but we feel it is based on knowledge 

 and instruments exact and sure. Yet, gaining much, 

 have we not lost a little ? The countryman who, dis- 

 pensing with the almanac, can make the sky his time- 

 piece and his weather-glass is not to be despised. He 

 is full of original, of knowing observation. He seems 

 equipped to deal with clouds, and may not cloudland be 

 largely an unexplored region of lesser weather wisdom ? 

 There is a very beautiful cloud form which, when seen 

 in the evening or night sky of autumn or winter, to 

 me foretells wet. Whether it float serene at a great 

 height, or drive swiftly through the air, it seems nearly 



