WEATHER PREDICTIONS. 117 



rush will often pass a hole which would have afforded 

 instant shelter because it has been recently ferreted. 



At this season the labourers are busy with ' beetle ' 

 (pronounced ' bitel ') — a huge mallet — and iron wedges, 

 splitting the tough elm-butts and logs for firewood. In 

 old times a cottager here and there with a taste for 

 astrology used to construct an almanack by rule of thumb, 

 predicting the weather for the ensuing twelve months from 

 the first twelve days of January. As the wind blew on 

 those days, so the prevailing weather of the months might 

 be foretold. The aged men, however, say that in this 

 divination the old style must be adhered to, for the 

 sequence of signs and omens still follows the ancient 

 reckoning, which ought never to have been interfered with. 



