80 IS IT GOING TO RAIN 



Then the weather is that phase of Nature in which 

 she appears not the immutable fate we are so wont to 

 regard her, but on the contrary something quite 

 human and changeable, not to say womanish, a 

 creature of moods, of caprices, of cross purposes ; 

 gloomy and downcast to-day, and all light and joy 

 to-morrow; caressing and tender one moment, and 

 severe and frigid the next ; one day iron, the next 

 day vapor ; inconsistent, inconstant, incalculable, full 

 of genius, full of folly, full of extremes, to be read 

 and understood, not by rule, but by subtle signs and - 

 indirections, by a look, a glance, a presence, as we 

 read and understand a man or a woman. Some days 

 are like a rare poetic mood. There is a felicity and 

 an exhilaration about them from morning till night. 

 They are positive and fill one with celestial fire. 

 Other days are negative and drain one of his electric- 

 ity. 



Sometimes the elements show a marked genius for 

 fair weather, as in the fall and early winter of 1877, 

 when October, grown only a little stern, lasted till 

 January. Every shuffle of the cards brought these 

 mild, brilliant days uppermost. There was not enough 

 frost to stop the plow, save once perhaps, till the new 

 year set in. Occasionally a fruit-tree put out a blos- 

 som and developed young fruit. The warring of the 

 elements was chiefly done on the other side of the 

 globe, where it formed an accompaniment to the hu- 

 man war raging there. In our usually merciless skies 

 was written only peace and good-will to men, foi 

 months. 



