A Thousand-Mile Walk 



suddenly gushes with bright waters, sparkling 

 and pouring from pool to pool, like dusty 

 mummies risen from the dead and set living 

 and laughing with color and blood. The weather 

 grows in beauty, like a flower. Its roots in the 

 ground develop day-clusters a week or two in 

 size, divided by and shaded in foliage of clouds ; 

 or round hours of ripe sunshine wave and spray 

 in sky-shadows, like racemes of berries half 

 hidden in leaves. 



These months of so-called rainy season are 

 not filled with rain. Nowhere else in North 

 America, perhaps in the world, are Januarys 

 so balmed and glowed with vital sunlight. Re- 

 ferring to my notes of 1868 and 1869, I find 

 that the first heavy general rain of the season 

 fell on the i8th of December. January yielded 

 to the Hollow, during the day, only twenty 

 hours of rain, which was divided among six 

 rainy days. February had only three days on 

 which rain fell, amounting to eighteen and one- 

 half hours in all. March had five rainy days. 

 April had three, yielding seven hours of rain. 

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