74 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



let down that did not quite touch the earth, the hot 

 air vaporizing the drops before they reached the 

 ground. 



Two or three times the wind got in the south, 

 and those low, dun- colored clouds that are nothing 

 but harmless fog came hurrying up and covered the 

 sky, and city folk and women folk said the rain was 

 at last near. But the wise ones knew better. The 

 clouds had no backing, the clear sky was just behind 

 them; they were only the nightcap of the south 

 wind, which the sun burnt up before ten o'clock. 



Every storm has a foundation that is deeply and 

 surely laid, and those shallow surface-clouds that 

 have no root in the depths of the sky deceive none 

 but the unwary. 



At other times, when the clouds were not reab- 

 sorbed by the sky and rain seemed imminent, they 

 would suddenly undergo a change that looked like 

 curdling, and when clouds do that no rain need be 

 expected. Time and again I saw their continuity 

 broken up, saw them separate into small masses, — 

 in fact saw a process of disintegration and disorgani- 

 zation going on, and my hope of rain was over for 

 that day. Vast spaces would be affected suddenly ; 

 it was like a stroke of paralysis: motion was re- 

 tarded, the breeze died down, the thunder ceased, 

 and the storm was blighted on the very threshold of 

 success. 



I suppose there is some compensation in a drought; 

 Nature doubtless profits by it in some way. It is a 

 good time to thin out her garden, and give the la\» 



