WEATHER AND THE SKY 211 



sinks through a belt of pure, cool amber, leaving a still 

 cooler green above which melts into the night sky. 

 Against this western light some naked tree will stand 

 out in startling, lacy, silhouette, disclosing all the in- 

 tricate beauty of its limbs but looking chill enough the 

 while. Such a sunset, for all its loveliness, makes us 

 turn gratefully to the red window squares in the house 

 behind and sniff the pungent smell of wood smoke 

 from the chimney. In Autumn, and more rarely in 

 Summer, when we see such a sunset we exclaim: "It's 

 going to be a cold day to-morrow!" and generally 

 it is. 



After sunset, the stars, as well as the moon, may 

 still tell you something of the weather. A neighbour 

 of mine who used to be an almost unerring weather 

 prophet till he began taking the Federal weather map 

 and tried to predict scientifically, since when he has 

 been flagrantly unreliable and has lost his former de- 

 lightful assurance used to startle me sometimes on a 

 vivid, starry night by gazing up into the spangled sky, 

 through an opening between our elms, and wisely 

 affirming that to-morrow the wind would be southeast 

 (a southeast wind meaning rain). Time after time his 

 prophecy was fulfilled, to my admiration and wonder. 

 Finally he let me into the secret. He always made the 

 prediction when the southeast branch of the milky way 

 could be plainly seen, in its great downward swoop. 

 After all, then, his lore was the same as the common 



