IS IT GOING TO RAIN ? 97 



element?, w^/it a commotion ! How the horse-rake 

 rattles, h'/v jbhe pitchforks fly, how the white sleeves 

 play and * winkle in the sun or against the dark back- 

 ground of the coming storm ! One man does the 

 work of two or three. It is a race with the elements, 

 and the hay-makers do not like to be beaten. The 

 rain that is life to the grass when growing is poison 

 to it after it becomes cured hay, and it must be got 

 under shelter, or put up into snug cocks, if possible, 

 before the storm overtakes it. 



The rains of winter are cold and odorless. One 

 prefers the snow which warms and covers, but can 

 there be anything more delicious than the first warm 

 April rain, the first offering of the softened and 

 pacified clouds of spring ? The weather has been dry, 

 perhaps, for two or three weeks ; we have had a 

 touch of the dreaded drought thus early ; the roads 

 are dusty, the streams again shrunken, and forest 

 fires send up columns of smoke on every hand ; the 

 frost has all been out of the ground many days ; the 

 snow has all disappeared from the mountains ; the sun 

 is warm, but the grass does not grow, nor the early 

 seeds come up. The quickening spirit of the rain is 

 needed. Presently the wind gets in the southwest, 

 and, late in the day, we have our first verna 1 shower, 

 gentle and leisurely, but every drop condensed from 

 warm tropic vapors and charged with the very es- 

 sence of spring. Then what a perfume fills the air ! 

 One's nostrils are not half large enough to take it 

 n. The smoke, washed by the rain, becomes the 



