AN APRIL SHOWER 



THINK of the drama of an April shower ! A com- 

 bination of comedy and tragedy. How suddenly the 

 brilliant sun is lost, hidden by a bank of clouds which 

 has quickly formed up in frowning blackness from 

 an invisible source ; gusts of cold wind follow in 

 almost explosive abruptness ; genial spring, which was 

 with us a few moments ago, has gone, the counter- 

 attack of winter triumphs, great drops of wind-borne 

 rain are driven first one way then another and then 

 fall in torrents. 



Precocious young green leaves and shoots are 

 lashed, bruised and beaten as the sudden storm roars 

 by ; the note of the rattling patter of rain-drops 

 changes, the air whitens and a million balls of ice are 

 hopping, bounding, jumping, as if a legion of fairies 

 were holding a tennis tournament : from a thousand 

 tiny hail-bows our eyes rise to the great prismatic arch 

 above : on yonder hill the sun is shining. There is 

 a lull, in a few gusts the trees shake themselves, 

 like great monsters after a bath, and brilliant sun 



73 



