158 HILLS AND LAKES. 



flowers, and pressin' them between the leaves of a 

 great book. He didn't care much about the deer, but 

 he cracked away with his double barrel, at every 

 wood-bird he could find. When he got what he 

 called a specimen, he took off the skin, and stowed it 

 away, as he said, to be stuffed when he got home. 

 Well, what I was goin' to tell you is, we was out one 

 day on the lake ; it was warm, and the sun shone 

 down clear, and bright, and hardly a breath of air 

 was stirrin'. On our return to the shantee at noon, 

 he looked at a machine he had hung up against the 

 poles, and says he, ' Friend Tucker, there's rain a 

 brewin', and you'd better mend the roof of your wig- 

 wam.' I hadn't noticed the signs, and how he came 

 to know there was going to be a storm, beat me. 

 Well, I went out, and looked about me, and listened, 

 and sure enough, there was no mistakin' the appear- 

 ance of things. Now the machine he looked at, told 

 him as plain as A B C, what weather was ahead. It's 

 name I disremember, but you, may be, know all about 

 it. I allers thought it took a good deal of studyin' 

 and lookin' into the nater of things, to invent a ma- 

 chine to foretell a storm." 



We shot out from the little bay, and paddled on. 



