IS IT GOING TO RAIN? 75 



of the survival of the fittest a chance to come into 

 play. How the big trees and big plants do rob the 

 little ones! there is not drink enough to go around, 

 and the strongest will have what there is. It is a 

 rest to vegetation, too, a kind of torrid winter that 

 is followed by a fresh awakening. Every tree and 

 plant learns a lesson from it, learns to shoot its roots 

 down deep into the perennial supplies of moisture 

 and life. 



But when the rain does come, the warm, sun-dis- 

 tilled rain; the far- traveling, vapor-born rain; the 

 impartial, undiscriminating, unstinted rain; equable, 

 bounteous, myriad-eyed, searching out every plant 

 and every spear of grass, finding every hidden thing 

 that needs water, falling upon the just and upon 

 the unjust, sponging off every leaf of every tree 

 in the forest and every growth in the fields; music 

 to the ear, a perfume to the smell, an enchantment to 

 the eye; healing the earth, cleansing the air, renew- 

 ing the fountains ; honey to the bee, manna to the 

 herds, and life to all creatures, — what spectacle so 

 fills the heart? "Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, down 

 on the plowed fields of the Athenians, and on the 

 plains. " 



There is a fine sibilant chorus audible in the sod, 

 and in the dust of the road, and in the porous plowed 

 fields. Every grain of soil and every root and root- 

 let purrs in satisfaction. Because something more 

 than water comes down when it rains ; you cannot 

 produce this effect by simple water; the good- will 

 of the elements, the consent and approbation of all 



