THE SCYTHE-BEARER 



ERHAPS the wonderful painting of the 

 winds has not been sufficiently noted by- 

 artists ; yet upon the great currents of 

 air stirring at earth's surface much de- 

 pends, and the practised eye may usually guess, 

 without note of flying cloud or bending grass-blade, 

 whence the breezes blow. 



The southern wind, "moist with long kissing of his 

 sweetheart sea," invariably comes robed in cloud, the 

 harbinger of rain. Upon his advent the atmosphere 

 is apt to take a crystal clarity, and under a clouded 

 sky of diffused light all things grow near and distinct. 

 The West wind shares this quality, but to him belongs 

 fine weather as well as wet. He is usually a genial 

 giant ; and though many a scene in this our West 

 Country bears his yoke on forest trees that have 

 bowed before him for a hundred years, yet to him 

 and the wind of the North belongs the pleasantest 

 weather that we experience. 



The West wind is a cloud magician, and does 

 wonders on high with his giant peaks and pinnacles 

 lifted from old ocean ; the North wind rules Winter, 

 and then his grey wings hold the snow ; yet he is 

 a pleasant and a tonic companion through the summer 



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