SUMMER 



sions of birds marked where they had 

 come for a drink or a bath, and tiny 

 irregular patches showed where the 

 wasps had secured the material for 

 their houses of clay. Many weeks 

 would elapse before it would again 

 race joyously through its winding bed 

 to join the larger streams in its jour- 

 ney to the great Falls of Niagara. 



The red moon of August came, with 

 it a long period of Summer drought and 

 caused great cracks to open up in the 

 parched ground. The mud at the edge 

 of the pond became baked into little 

 saucers, and the leaves of the trees be- 

 side the road were covered with a thick 

 layer of dust. The sun rose each day 

 in a cloudless sky and cast its lurid 

 flame upon the land, scorching the 

 grass and wilting even the willows by 

 the creek. But now one day it ap- 

 peared within an iridescent circle with 

 four sundogs to watch its fiery path 

 across the arc of heaven. Three suc- 

 cessive days this occurred. Each day 

 a new circle was added, while the air 

 grew close and the whole horizon line 

 danced grotesquely through the radia- 

 56 



