IS IT GOING TO RAIN ? 67 



will twice and thrice, and a dozen tiroes. In a wet 

 time it rains to-day because it rained yesterday, and 

 will rain to-morrow because it rained to-day. Are 

 the crops in any part of the country drowning? 

 Ihey shall continue to drown. Are they burning 

 jp? They shall continue to burn. The elements 

 i^et in a rut and can't get out without a shock. I 

 know a farmer who, in a dry time, when the clouds 

 gather and look threatening, gets out his watering- 

 pot at once, because, he says, "it won't rain, and 

 'tis an excellent time to apply the water." Of 

 course, there comes a time when the farmer is wrong, 

 but he is right four times out of five. 



But I am not going to abuse the weather; rather 

 to praise it, and make some amends for the many 

 ill-natured things I have said, within hearing of the 

 clouds, when I have been caught in the rain or been 

 Darched and withered by the drought. 



When Mr. Fields 's " Village Dogmatist " was asked 

 what caused the rain, or the fog, he leaned upon 

 his cane and answered, with an air of profound wis- 

 dom, that "when the atmosphere and hemisphere 

 come together it causes the earth to sweat, and 

 thereby produces the rain," — or the fog, as the 

 case may be. The explanation is a little vague, as 

 his biographer suggests, but it is picturesque, and 

 there can be little doubt that two somethings do 

 come in contact that produce a sweating when it 

 rains or is foggy. IVIore than that, the philosophy 

 is simple and comprehensive, which Goethe said was 

 the main matter in such things. Goethe's explaua- 



