EVENING RED AND MORNING GREY 

 3 



If the ash before the oak 

 Then we are in for a soak. 

 But if the oak before the ash 

 We shall get off with a splash. 



Then they say : 



Between twelve and two 

 You'll see what the day will do. 



And again : 



Out your thistles before St. John 

 You will have two to every one. 



And, 



The grass that grows in Janiveer 

 Grows no more all the year. 



And also : 



That flower seeds sown on Palm Sunday will come up double. 

 



These are all very well, and what with one thing 

 and another will come true, at least as true as the 

 rhyme that says : 



A mackerel sky 



Is very wet, or very dry. 



Still it is really to the wind that the gardener looks 

 most, and if he have a weathercock in his garden (which 

 with a sundial, a rain gauge, and an outside thermo- 

 meter he should always have) he will note each turn of 

 the wind. If he has no weathercock then he will read 

 the wind by the smoke of chimneys, or the turn of the 

 leaves of trees. 



And, after regarding the wind, he may remember this : 



When it rains with the wind in the east, 

 It rains for twenty four hours at least. 

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