The Changeful Skies 23 



skies had offered ; and the earliest of our 

 larger lilies was above the grass, with the 

 yellow of the noonday glare in its blossoms. 

 These flowers show well together, repre- 

 senting on earth the sun and sky ; but how 

 seldom do we turn from them to the high 

 heavens ! A few flowers will hold us while 

 the firmament is marked by conditions which 

 may, at least in our lifetime, never again 

 occur. 



There hangs in the hall a barometer that 

 has foretold for many years, without blun- 

 dering, the kind of weather that we are to 

 have, and it can be read with profit when 

 interpreting the skies. For instance, it often 

 happens that before the great masses of svllen 

 clouds, bringing the summer shower or the 

 day-long rain, appear above the horizon, we 

 are informed by it, and so can anticipate 

 their coming and watch their progress. This 

 is akin, in the pleasure it affords, to finding 

 a new flower or hearing the song of a rare 

 bird. There is less sameness in the cloud- 

 flecked skies than upon the earth when light 

 and shadow dash across the scene. I recall 

 one long cloud that slowly rose from half the 

 horizon at once and moved like a huge cur- 



