AUTUMN RAIN 



Shrunken dandelion blossoms gleam from the floor of the 

 stream, and the grey leaves of the silverweed shine where 

 the water has twisted them aslant. In two or three days the 

 decaying vegetation is hardly noticeable ; and a fortnight 

 later even its corruption has vanished, and the rivulet is 

 once more lined with clean gravel. Meanwhile, if the wet 

 weather goes on, the whole earth becomes a system of hurry- 

 ing streams, ramifying from the great navigable rivers to tiny 

 tributaries trickling from the summits of the hills, and even 



AUTUMN FLOOD. 



from the tops of the trees. Rivulets run down the trunks of 

 the elms and beeches in regular channels ; on the smooth 

 beech trunks their courses are traced even in summer by the 

 dark streaks traversing the green. When they reach the 

 earth they sometimes trickle through the wet wood or down 

 the hillside, until they join some runnel leading to a brook ; 

 but a large proportion of their moisture sinks directly into 

 the soil. The cracked earth in the beech-wood closes, and 

 the moss grows green again. Deep in the pores of the 

 gravel and interstices of the rock a network of rivulets is form- 

 ing, like the channels on the surface above. Gradually they 

 oenetrate to some impermeable layer, and form buried 



